Friday, July 17, 2009

Now, it’s a cool ride from Belapur to Bandra

The city bus commuters travelling to Bandra can enjoy a cool ride. On July 4, the Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport (NMMT) inducted five new air- conditioned Volvo buses in its fleet, to ply from the bus depot here to Bandra (W), which later may even be extended to SEEPZ.
State Excise and Environment Minister Ganesh Naik, MLC Manda Mhatre, State Transport Commissoner Deepak Kapoor, NMMT outgoing chairman Sasi Damodaran, NMMC Standing Committee Chairman Sandeep Naik and other dignitaries attended the inauguration function.
The air- conditioned Volvo buses are being run between here and Bandra covering a total distance of 35.5 kms within 85 to 90 minutes. The frequency of the buses will be 18 minutes and the fare is Rs45. The main stops apart from Belapur and Bandra are Uran Phata, D Y Patil college , Suman Nagar and Mohammed Rafi Chowk.
NMMT’s foray into Mumbai’s Queen of Suburbs is in itself an achievement of sorts for the Undertaking as it had to face stiff opposition from the BEST administration for the last many years. Ganesh Naik appreciated the efforts of the entire official who made this happen in spite of the hurdle. He also urged Volvo official to supply non-air conditioned buses as well to cater to the poor so that they too may travel in comfort at affordable price.
“Keeping the future growth of Navi Mumbai, the proposed airport and other projects in mind, NMMT must start operating these buses from Navi Mumbai to Santacruz to connect the two airports and tap this profitable market before others do. Such a service will also help boost weekend tourism in the city,” said Kapoor.
“Five Volvo city buses have been delivered to NMMT, and fifteen more will be delivered this month itself “, said Volvo buses India Ltd MD Akash Passey. He further added,”The fare is only 25 to 30 per cent higher the ordinary buses. The emissions are much lower.
Taking all the advantages into consideration, the buses are apt for travel within city and will help bring down congestion as commuters will not mind leaving their cars and bikes behind to travel by this bus.”
“Following passengers’ requests we decided to start plying buses from Belapur to Bandra as this is a very important route.”
It is also gathered that NMMT is planning to start bus services from the city to Dadar and Mantralaya, once the once the newly started service gets good response.

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