Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) will start its premium bus service on the Thane-Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) route from December 12 at ₹205. The service is being rolled out with four air-conditioned, zero-emission electric buses that promise convenient and comfortable rides.
The launch makes Mumbai the first city in India to have an all-electric premium city bus service.
Although this was announced in August and the final paperwork and permissions took four months to complete, the services have been thoughtfully scheduled for peak hours so that commuters will have a hassle-free ride. In the first inaugural phase, the service will run from Monday to Saturday, on two routes- express and all-day routes.
“The express route is for the benefit of those travelling from Thane to BKC, from 7am to 8.30am and in the evening from BKC to Thane from 5.30 to 7pm. Moreover, an all-day route wherein buses will ply along the BKC to Bandra Station route between 8.50am and 5.50pm and in the reverse direction between 9.25am and 6.25pm. Seats on the bus can be booked with the help of the Chalo App. The bus will stop only if a passenger is to be picked up, based on a reservation, guaranteeing faster travel with fewer stops. The buses do not permit standing travel,” said Lokesh Chandra, General Manager, BEST.
This will be followed by 20 more buses that will be added to the fleet by December 25, BEST will provide service on an additional route- from Kharghar to BKC after Christmas. These routes were selected after a detailed survey was conducted by BEST on popular routes by private buses.
These buses will not have any bus conductors as they will be completely digitised, and commuters can use the tap-in tap-out facility. “This is an alternative to self-driven cars; a bus can carry more capacity and we can easily reduce the number of vehicles on the road. The live tracking facility on the application will also help find the next bus schedule,” added Chandra.
“The private buses currently on similar routes take around 1.5 hours to reach BKC from Thane, if I can get a quicker mode of transport with similar comfort or a closer home pick-up service than the private buses, I will surely switch to such a mode of transport. However, the BEST will have to maintain the service throughout as the main concern with the private luxury buses are frequent breakdowns,” said Shari D’Costa, 35, a regular commuter from Thane to BKC.
The main aim of starting such a facility is to help thousands of commuters shift from self-driven cars and taxis to public modes of transport. BEST plans to add 200 more such services of electric buses on busy routes across the city in the coming months.
BEST has also rolled out a welcome offer that gives five rides at the fraction of the cost of the one-way fare. The Welcome Offer can be purchased directly on the BEST Chalo App and is valid for 7 days. Commuters can also avail of travel subscriptions that have been designed to help them save up to 50% on their monthly travel.
The app will also have a home reach feature, wherein passengers can provide their details like a home address along with an emergency contact and enable the live location. The BEST control room will track the passengers’ movement after they alight from the bus and if they do not reach their home location in a stipulated time, the control room will call the passengers to check on their whereabouts.