Mumbai: What curbs? Public transport figures rise

A commuter says instead of the big buses on some routes with their frequency decided as per the crowd and demand, now there are smaller wet-leased buses, and their frequency is also low. Pic/Satej Shinde

People seemed to be paying no heed to the state's new restrictions to control COVID-19 cases, as crowds on the public transport were almost back to normal on the first day of the week. As per Monday's statistics, suburban railway passengers reached 30 lakh and those travelling by BEST buses crossed 15 lakh, leading to panic among authorities. While the BEST Undertaking ran 3,311 buses, there were 16,19,027 passengers on Monday, as per the statistics.

While last week Mumbai local train passenger numbers had come down by 10 lakh in a day to a total of 20 lakh, on Monday the figures rose drastically to 30 lakh. While 11,76,164 passengers travelled on Western Railway's local trains, the passenger count on Central Railway went up to 18,77,100, totalling nearly 30 lakh.

As of now there are no curbs on the number of local trains which are running at 95 p c capacity with CR running 1,686 services and WR running 1,300 services per day. Officials said that they will follow any new directives that will be issued by the Maharashtra government with full cooperation in this fight against the pandemic.

Auto drivers get Rs 107 crore

The Maharashtra transport minister on Tuesday night announced a Rs 107 crore relief package to 7.15 lakh auto drivers in the state. Each driver/owner having a valid permit for the vehicle will get Rs 1,500 as relief for the 15-day ‘Break the Chain' period. The money will be transferred online to his Aadhaar linked bank A/c.