Mumbai: With schools reopening, BEST to provide more buses and services to students

BEST will streamline its services for schoolkids. File pic/Satej Shinde

Best bus services in the city will now be streamlined for school students. The move comes after complaints of school bus fare hikes by parents and readiness of the public transport service provider to make its buses available for students. The BEST undertaking on Tuesday announced that more buses and services would be made available as and when required for students.

"The BEST undertaking will prioritise school students taking the public transport and more bus inspectors and supervisors will be nominated on routes heavy with students' commute. If need be and as per demand, we may also run additional bus services and see to it that students are least inconvenienced," a BEST spokesperson said.

Some without a school bus

School bus operators had earlier in the week said that they might withdraw buses if there was inadequate response on certain routes, leaving a handful of students without a school bus. "We have requested all bus owners to review students travelling by buses when schools begin, and if the numbers are not above 75 per cent, they are free to withdraw the bus service or combine it with other routes. The loss is so much that if buses are not full, contractors will be forced to close down," said the president of the School Bus Owners' Association, Maharashtra.

"Illegal vehicles are increasing day-by-day with no control of the police, traffic police, or RTO. They have no safety policy to follow. We will wait and watch. Once we get the feedback from bus owners, we can give a list of how many official school buses have been withdrawn," he added. As per estimates, there are around 50,000 school buses that employ about 1.5 lakh staffers in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.

The state government has already announced a 100 per cent waiver of Motor Vehicles Tax for the period of April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2022 for COVID-hit school bus owners.

50,000
No. of approximate school buses in the MMR