Association of bus owners urges govt to allow private buses to ply as public transport

Amidst the pandemic, private buses, which includes several school buses have been suffering. They are facing losses of over ₹200 crores.

According to a report in Times of India, the association of private bus owners has now petitioned the government, asking it to permit private and school buses to operate as 'public transport' vehicles in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).

Moreover, the association stated that with more buses on roads, BEST, MSRTC, private and school buses, it will only strengthen public transport. In addition, this will reduce congestion of private vehicles and stop people from bringing cars and bikes on roads which would lead to a decline in traffic.

In the past, with the BMC hiring additional ST buses to run on the route of BEST buses in view of the increase in the number of passengers travelling, as per reports, at least one lakh passengers have travelled on the ST buses running on the BEST route since.

The Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) had 16 lakh passengers as of September 21. As a result, the rules of social distancing were heavily violated due to congestion. Apart from that, due to the shortage of trains and traffic congestion, passengers waited for hours at the BEST stop. As a result, some had to opt for rickshaws and taxis.

Finally, it was decided to run ST buses with the help of BEST from September 24. As the ST buses started running on the route of BEST, passengers started getting instant service. Moreover, it was witnessed that the passengers, who would earlier only opt for BEST would now go for the ST buses.