Mumbai: Special Siddhivinayak AC bus has hardly any takers

The new AC bus services from the Kohinoor parking lot to Siddhivinayak temple had hardly any takers even on Day 2 The ones who did board were however amused to see a compact AC bus with a fare of just R6 BEST began its services on the new route from Kohinoor parking lot to Siddhivinayak temple a 25km ride on Wednesday October 2On middays test drive of the route on Thursday morning there was not a single carowner who had parked the car in the parking lot to take the bus to Siddhivinayak Many regular commuters instead enjoyed the AC services to their destinations on the route The BMC has a parking lot near Kohinoor square with a vehicle capacity of 1007 A s the BMC couldnt provide a parking lot near Siddhivinayak temple which the temple trust had requested it to the civic body came up with an alternative of special AC buses on the route dedicated to car owners who park at the Kohinoor Public Parking Lot PPLThe compact AC bus has been catching a lot of eyeballs on its route with a lot of commuters asking kidhar jaata haiBus number A54 leaves from the parking lot via Dadar Plaza DSilva school to Siddhivinayak temple Kirti College Shivaji Park and bus number A55 comes counterclockwise An interval of 20 minutes has been planned for the buses from 8 am to 820 pm However when the midday team reached the bus stop at 750 am there was no sign of the bus A security guard appointed to look after the PPL said around 300 to 350 vehicles used the BMC parking lot earlier The number had however dropped from October 1 when the BMC began charging for parking Around 820 am a BEST official over a call told midday that the bus was stuck in a traffic jam At 837 am an A54 bus reached the parking lot and took a Uturn immediately without having a look at whether there were passengers waiting for it Halfanhour later bus number A54 came overA ticket inspector from the Worli depot P R Raut told midday that the bus was running late and there werent any passengers in the parking lot a day before so we thought of completing as many rounds as possible but got stuck in a traffic jam The bus is supposed to start its journey from Colaba at 6 am and reach Santacruz at 715 am before reaching Kohinoor parking lotThough we started on time the traffic delayed the bus said conductor Kashinath Aachrekar from Colaba depot Having started with just the midday team on board by the time the bus reached Dadar Plaza and DSilva school stops many passengers had entered for Agar Bazar Siddhivinayak and Prabhadevi They were amazed at the compact AC bus on a hot October morning A passenger even called home to share his novel experience The bus reached Siddhivinayak temple within 10 minutes where traffic police do not allow the bus to take a right turn in front of the temple The bus driver thus proceeded to Prabhadevi to turn and returned to the parking lot at 932 amWhen inquired about the second bus we were told that it never comes to the parking lot The BMC had last week cut the divider on Lady Jamshetji road in front of Shiv Sena Bhavan to make way for the bus to take a Uturn on to Thakkar lane The divider had earlier been closed due to traffic chaos at the junction which forced the BEST to run A55 on another route starting from Plaza We rode on the bus near Shivaji Mandir at 10 am but there were no passengers It will take some time to set the route As people get to know of this bus we will get a response said Sunil Talekar ticket inspectorBus conductor Sandesh Nikam was calling out names of the destinations name at every bus stop but that didnt help either At the temple slightly hesitant passengers entered the bus and enjoyed the ride up to Dadar railway station The bus reached Plaza at 1025 am and waited for 10 minutes before taking the next ride BMCs assistant commissioner North ward Kiran Dighavkar said the idea behind the bus service was to help both car owners who visit Siddhivinayak and local residents It will take some time to get people used to the idea and will ultimately help reduce the number of vehicles parked on the road illegally he addedLogistical issuesWhile the small 22seater including driver bus is a good option for the citys narrow lanes and traffic jams some issues were evident The steps to board the bus start about 15 feet above the ground making it difficult for senior citizens sareeclad women and children to climb it Once inside the height of the roof is short too The bus has no bell making communication between the driver and conductor difficult especially at bus stops The electronic display board on the A55 bus was not working due to technical errors25kmLength of the route8amTime services begin on the ring routeRs 6Ticket price on the routeCommuter speakI wasnt aware of any such bus service But as the conductor called out Siddhivinayk I stepped in It feels good to ride on a cool bus on such a hot day But why they didnt do any announcement for it earlierKishor Patil a commuterReducing the fares is a good decision and the compact bus is good on the roads in Dadar where big buses always get stuck in traffic Now BEST will have to increase the frequency of these busesYogesh Ghanekar a commuterCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates