BEST to get 1,500 new buses by September

The BEST has announced that it will expedite the pace with which the buses are being inducted in its fleet. With at least 100-200 buses being added every month, the BEST fleet is expected to have a total of 1,500 buses by September or October, a senior official said.
The fleet has already hit a low at 2,800 buses, with BEST-owned fleet reducing below 750 buses and this has left commuters fuming as they wait for over 30 minutes at most bus stops across the city.

Another decision taken by BEST this month is to shorten some of the existing routes. Recently, it split a few routes into two -- a long distance route from Andheri in Mumbai's western suburbs to Vashi in Navi Mumbai. Commuters are not happy with the bus routes being split and eventually some of these routes being stopped, said bus fan and regular traveller Shubham Padave on Friday.
"For example, recently route 533L from Andheri to Vashi has been split in two halves. Route A533: APMC Vashi to Ghatkopar and route A433 is now from Ghatkopar to Andheri. Now for Ghatkopar - Andheri section, we already have a well established route A340. and for Ghatkopar - Vashi, we have route A C53 Exp and A 511. There is no need for splitting the long route which was beneficial to many,"he said.
A senior official said that BEST will focus on deploying more buses on busy and profit making routes. This is to ensure that the maximum number of people are catered -- some places people are waiting and other places there are no passengers but buses are plying. Wherever there are hardly any passengers, there will be few or no buses. Also, bunching buses -- with 3-4 buses travelling back to back on the same route -- will be stopped immediately, an official added.
The BEST also curtailed a route recently, route 502 Limited, from Nerul Sector 46/48 to Tata Power Station, Chembur. It is learnt that this has now been converted to Midi AC bus and curtailed as Nerul Sector 46/48 to Deonar depot bus. Similarly, two routes were suspended lately -- route 720 Limited from Malvani depot to Bhayander station East and route A-290 from Marol Maroshi bus station to Poisar depot.
Said Padave: "The route 720 Limited was suspended last year but it resumed operations after a few months, and now it is suspended for a second time. Similarly route 290 was a Limited bus route which was converted to AC route (A-290) and benefitted commuters. But its suspension from service is a loss to many. The curtailment of the route from Navi Mumbai to Mumbai is also disappointing."