Thane: The heavy traffic congestion caused due to ongoing metro and other infrastructure works along the highways in the city is affecting schedules of public transport buses forcing the operators to either cancel or short terminate services on certain routes leaving thousands of passengers inconvenienced.Regular commuters travelling to and from the city to Borivali, Bhiwandi, and even Ghodbunder road complain of frequent disruptions in bus serviceswhich are either running late, cancelled or often short terminated, thanks to the congestion on the highways.The routes of public bus transport undertakings operating in the city including the Thane municipal transport (TMT), MSRTC, NMMT, MBMT and the BEST using Ghodbunder road, Bhiwandi bypass are some of the worst affected ones, commuters complain.Nowadays the waiting time for buses has increased to anywhere between 15-30 minutes or even more at times towards the Ghodbunder road and Borivli during peak hours. Many times, the operators end up short terminating the routes only till Owala or Manpada leaving long distance commuters in the lurch. Often, few buses skip the busy congested junctions and take the flyovers to save time, complained Swapnil Jadhav, a regular commuter.When contacted, officials from the undertakings admitted having cancelled or short terminate a few services to ensure their overall schedules dont suffer. We are helpless and have to terminate some Thane-Borivli routes midway either at Gaimukh or Manpada depending on the traffic situation beyond. We do this to ensure the overall schedule of the bus is not affected and moreover, commuters can board the next bus which often plies at regular intervals to travel further, said an official requesting anonymity.We also published the following articles recentlyBEST deploys extra buses outside Western Railway stations in Mumbai to ease commuter congestionTo address the issue of overcrowded trains, BEST deployed extra buses outside railway stations in Mumbai. Commuters reported packed buses during peak hours and some faced refusals or excessive charges from auto-taxi drivers. BEST spokesperson, Sunil Vaidya, stated that while regular buses were able to handle the crowds at most stations, additional buses were deployed at a few stations with higher demand from passengers.Platform slab works for six stations on Thane-Bhiwandi Metro route completeThe Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has finished constructing the cast-in-situ concrete platform slabs for all the Metro stations along the Thane-Bhiwandi route. This development brings the project closer to completion and track works. Phase 1 of the project, covering a length of 11.88km, includes six stations from Thane to Bhiwandi. The MMRDA has expedited work on all Metro lines, with approximately 81.5% of the civil work for Phase 1, 77% for the stations, and 83% for the viaduct already completed.Buse services in Thane disrupted by ongoing metro and infrastructure projectsOngoing metro and infrastructure projects in Thane city are causing heavy traffic congestion, leading to disruptions in public bus services. Bus operators have been forced to cancel or shorten routes, inconveniencing thousands of passengers. Commuters have reported increased waiting times and frequent disruptions, particularly on routes towards Ghodbunder road and Borivali. Some buses are taking alternative routes to save time, but officials from various bus transport agencies acknowledge the challenges they face. They have had to cancel services or terminate routes prematurely to prevent disruptions to the overall bus schedule, inconveniencing passengers.

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