Mumbai: BEST launched the first few buses on the coastal road on Sunday. The electric AC bus will be on the new route A-84 from S P Mukherjee Chowk (Museum) in south Mumbai to Oshiwara depot in the suburbs via the coastal road. It will run initially at a frequency of 40-45 minutes.The four new stops along the coastal road are the Parsi General Hospital, Mahalaxmi Temple, Nehru Planetarium, and Worli Dairy, an official said. He added that the frequency will be improved to 20 minutes in the near future after deploying more buses based on commuter demand.A BEST spokesperson said that the first bus will leave Oshiwara depot at 7.15 am, while the first bus from Museum will be at 8.50 am. The bus fare will be a minimum of Rs 12 and a maximum of Rs 50, depending on the distance travelled by a commuter.As for the 20 new e-buses inducted into the fleet on Saturday, officials said that they will be deployed on various existing non-AC routes and also on busy office-going routes to reduce the rush at bus stops. The BEST fleet dropped significantly recently and went below the 2700-mark, and efforts are being made to increase the fleet to over 3000 buses.The unions have reiterated their demand that the BEST should purchase its own buses and maintain its own fleet at 3,337 so that there are better drivers and a good frequency is strictly maintained on several busy routes.
