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More than 200 Thane Municipal Transport Buses are Lying at its Depots


More than 200 Thane Municipal Transport Buses are Lying at its Depots
SHARES

A new report sheds light on the attempts of the Thane Municipal Transport (TMT) to bring back 230 public transport buses that are in a dilapidated condition and happen to be parked at its depots. The agency is also looking to repair some of these buses so as to bring them back on the roads. 

Chairman of TMT, Vilas Joshi has said that he will make sure the buses are fixed. “It is not that there have been no efforts. Proposals to repair these buses have been sent earlier too but had been rejected. Funds were never an issue. The problem was that the proposals sent to Thane Municipal Corporation had not been processed correctly as per requirements of the accounts department. This led to rejections and delays. But now we have set that right,” Joshi said while speaking to mid-day.

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“We have 30 Volvos in our fleet of which about ten are operational. My priority is to get the rest of them back in action,” he added while saying that the TMT has sent a proposal to obtain 200 new buses. 

As per sources, the TMT has a fleet of 517 buses with 277 of them belonging to the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) while the rest are reportedly run privately on a Gross Cost Contract or GCC. This is an arrangement wherein city bus operations and maintenance are handled by a private party and payments are made to them based on the kilometres covered per bus as well as service hours. However, the revenue risk, fare collection as well as retention is the TMT’s responsibility.

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Although TMT and its contractors had around 290 buses on the roads prior to March 2020, the number has now fallen to 210 owing to the limited availability of routes as well as passengers. Joshi said that the waiting and the delay meant that many buses are now well past their prime. 

Joshi also acknowledged that the massive reduction in ticket fares by BEST has hurt TMT’s operations. He asked for the state to intervene and launch standard fares for all public transport bus operators. 

“Earlier, the Thane-Borivli fare of BEST buses was about Rs 110 and TMT was about Rs 85 or so and people used to come to us. But now, the BEST has slashed it to R25 causing a huge loss. This is unfair, and if our civic body also gives us funds like the BMC is giving to BEST, we can also slash fares. Let the competition be on merit and not just fares,” he said.

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