The mini AC buses have gained popularity in less than a week of its introduction. Since October 1, there are four routes in which seven such buses are running. Sources said the queues are long but the frequency of these buses is between 20-30 minutes which needs to change. These ring route bus services are running in central and south Mumbai mainly catering to office goers. The Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking is operating in four ring routes namely – A 54 and A 55 between Dadar-Plaza- Siddhivinayak- Prabhadevi- Dadar in clockwise and anti-clockwise directions covering the area. They are running two AC buses on this route. The other two routes with number 122 cover Churchgate- Ballard Pier- Churchgate and have three AC buses, while another two ply on route number 167 between Prabhadevi railway station- Parel ST depot- Bombay Dyeing- Mahindra and back. "We are connecting the railway stations so that office goer can travel with ease. Once more such buses are added then automatically we shall run more services," said a BEST official. In the months to come, the BEST will be adding 1,000 such mini buses that shall be both AC and non-AC by January. These 21 seater buses plus seven standees were inaugurated last month. The BEST intends to run these on feeder routes connecting housing societies with railway stations thus providing last-mile connectivity to commuters. With a drop in fares, the number of daily passengers has gone up from 22 lakh to 32 lakh now. These AC buses charge mere Rs 6. Coincidentally these buses begin from railway stations giving competition to share taxis who charge anywhere between Rs 10-15 per seat. People are seen flocking to the buses than wait in queues for these share-taxis whose wait period during peak hours goes up to 7-10 minutes. In the long run, the BEST will get 6,000 such buses on wet lease. Gradually they intend to increase the number to 10,000. These mini buses can ply through the narrowest roads and will emerge as a tough competitor to share autos and taxis and even app-based cab aggregators. With a hike in parking fines, the menace of illegal parking has been brought under control which has helped improve bus speed and punctuality. At present, the average speed of a BEST bus is 11-12 kmph which will slowly rise by 10% with such mini buses on road. MORE THE MERRIER

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