The Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) has a daily ridership of 33 lakh commuters out of which 12 lakh are female commuters. In a bid to cater to women commuters, Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) recently announced that it will be adding more Tejaswini buses to its fleet. Introduced in December 2019, Tejaswini buses have only women commuters and are currently ply on routes that are in commercial areas like Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC), Colaba, Bandra and Nariman Point.
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BEST had procured 37 minibuses for Tejaswini out of which 26 are currently being used. The remaining 11 will be added to its fleet soon. BEST is looking at a possibility to make Tejaswini buses an all-women bus and as a part of this, it is planning to deploy women conductors and drivers in some buses.
The bus is 27-seater and costs ₹27 lakhs per bus. The buses are equipped with CCTV Cameras and a panic button. In 2019, the state government had announced to allot around 300 buses in cities such as Mumbai, Navi-Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Nagpur and Kalyan-Dombivli. Each city has been allotted 50 women-only buses by the state government. You can check out Mumbaikars view on this women's special bus here.
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BEST has added many new routes to its fleet, here's the complete list:
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