MUMBAI: The BEST on Thursday announced that its daily ridership has already touched 25 lakh in Mumbai—the highest ridership after the first wave of Covid-19 in November last year.
BEST general manager Lokesh Chandra said: “We were expecting ridership to go up significantly next week when local trains start for the fully vaccinated general public. But it came to me as a surprise when I found that the daily ridership has already gone up to 25 lakh this week.” It is a jump of 2-3 lakh commuters a day in less than a week, sources said.
The rise in ridership was mainly due to private offices opening up and having staggered timings for employees who are now travelling to their workplace. A section of commuters include labourers and workers from unorganised sectors whose numbers have also gone up lately.
Also, there are no vaccine certificate checks in BEST, so it’s a “hassle-free” ride for many, said an official. “Commuters who have to go to office but have got just a single dose of vaccine will still be travelling by BEST buses as train travel requires compulsory double vaccine (and 15 days after last dose),” the official added. While railways are issuing monthly season passes and not daily tickets, those who want to travel occasionally from one part of the city to another will opt for the red buses.
Statistics showed that BEST daily ridership dropped early this year, from 25 lakh in February to 16 lakh in March. It subsequently hit a low at 8 lakh daily commuters and the number grew to 21 lakh during the ‘Break the Chain’ mission of the state government from June. The daily ridership rose to over 22 lakh in July and in August, it touched 25 lakh.
The BEST has, however, been directed by the government not to carry any standees in buses. With the ridership going up, the BEST needs to improve its frequency and deploy more buses on busy routes, else it will not be able to cater to the rush during peak hours and the situation could be chaotic once local trains resume services for the fully vaccinated general public.
