NASHIK: The Nashik Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Ltd (NMPML), a public transport wing of the Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC), has received an overwhelming response to the city bus services introduced from Thursday.
Over 5,300 passengers have travelled in the city buses during the last two days. NMPML has collected a revenue of Rs 1.30 lakh in the last two days. Currently, 27 buses are plying along nine routes from two bus depots — Tapovan and Nashik Road — in Nashik city.
A senior official told TOI, “On the first day, only 1,300 passengers travelled through NMPML buses and we got a revenue of Rs 28,000. But on Friday, the footfall of passengers increased three times. Over 4,000 passengers travelled in city buses on Friday and we collected revenue amounting to Rs 1.02 lakh.”
The footfall of passengers will be rising as soon as more people get to know about the city bus service, he said.
NMPML has developed an Intelligent Transport Management System (ITMS) through which the location of buses is tracked and the speed of the buses is controlled. People may book their tickets through a mobile app and know the nearby bus stop. The buses include CCTV cameras, panic buttons and announcements about the next stops.
NMC has deployed two private firms for procurement, operation, maintenance and management bases, while NMC will pay both the firms on a per km basis. These two firms have altogether procured 250 buses, including 200 CNG and 50 diesel buses. These two firms are Pune-based M/s Travel Time Car Rental Pvt Ltd and Delhi-based M/s City Life Line Travels Pvt Ltd.
Manoj Patil, the project manager of M/s Travel Time Car Rental, said the buses plied on time and the footfall of passengers is also increasing.
Akash Koshire, a city resident, who travelled from Ashok Nagar to Central Bus Stand, said that he had a good experience travelling in the city bus.“I was not aware of the bus service, but I saw it when I was looking for a rickshaw at the bus stop in Ashok Nagar. The bus fare was also comparatively lower than the rickshaw fare,” he said.
