Bring all municipal buses under BEST, says MNS

The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena MNS has come up with its own solution to the citys bus woes mdash bring all public transport buses in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region MMR under the BEST This the political party says will improve planning and coordination and benefit the commuterApart from the BEST Undertaking which has a fleet of 3400 buses that cater to the city and a few extended suburbs there are many other small public bodies operating independentlyWhile the Thane Municipal Transport has a fleet of 210 buses the Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport has 475 buses The VasaiVirar Transport Service which has a fleet of its own 30 buses is also expected to get active by yearend with 100 buses from a contractor Other bodies like the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Transport MiraBhayandar Municipal Transport Ulhasnagar Municipal Transport too have limited buses and many of them are stuck in litigationThere is an urgent need to get different public transport undertakings in the MMR under an umbrella organisation In the existing state all transport undertakings are suffering due to some reason or the other Small towns are turning into cities and public transport remains a problem Not all municipal corporations or councils may have the expertise to run a transport body Hence they all must be merged under one body so that the problems can be handled better Rajesh Shanaram Kadam MNS Dombivli city chief saidMaybe we could merge them with the BEST which has the experience of running public transport for over a century as a parent body he saidExperts scepticalTransport experts had mixed reactions to this It is heartening that someone wants to improve public transport Good quality and affordable busbased public transport in Thane can be achieved A Viability Gap Funding scheme wherein the state provides a per bus km subsidy can help create a public transport system on Public Private Partnership basis transport activist Ranjit Gadgil said It is a partially good idea Thane district is expanding and as such it should also be able to expand its transport network in a planned and systematic manner But merging with the BEST is not possible as it is a fully owned BMC undertaking transport expert Ajit Shenoy of the Mumbai Vikas Samiti and Mumbai Mobility Forum saidPublic policy transport expert Paresh Rawal on the other hand said it would be a very good and positive development A small step but in the right directionTransport bodies and their busesBrihanmumbai Electric Supply amp Transport BEST 2727 own buses 1000 leased buses 1000 MSRTC buses and 443 routesThane Municipal Transport TMT 210 buses on 74 routesNavi Mumbai Municipal Transport NMMT 475 buses on 77 routesKalyanDombivli Municipal Transport KDMT 218 buses with over 50 being operationalKhopoli Municipal Transport KMT 17 buses on seven routesVasaiVirar Transport Service VVTS 30 owned busesMiraBhayandar Municipal Transport MBMT 20 of 70 buses operational 60 routesUlhasnagar Municipal Transport Service UMTS Service shut for seven yearsKeep scrolling to read more newsCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest news