BEST mulls over new tours of Mumbai

The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) is in talks with the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) for a special tour that picks up and drops tourists on an hourly basis from the city’s most famous tourist spots on a trial basis.

The concept behind the one-hour pick up and drop is that tourists will have sufficient time at a particular spot to see it at their own pace before the next bus arrives.

“Tourist can spend an hour at the gateway and then hop back into the bus. After that, if they want to shop at Colaba, then they can take two hours and then head back to a designated stop where the bus will arrive and head to the next stop,” explained an official, on the condition of anonymity.

The BEST has also been thinking of running a mix of old and new air-conditioned buses. The new buses are the 50 buses that are to be proposed in the budget in December this year.

“The old buses are problematic since they keep breaking down, so only the best of those 124 can be circulated, hence we are hopeful that if a budget of '50 crore is approved in the budget, we can include the new ones in this project.

“These buses will be smaller than the current air-conditioned buses and are expected to perform better as well,” added the official.

The route of this work, which is yet to be finalised, is yet to be decided.

It will include old spots like Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST), Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangralaya, Gateway of India and a mix of Colaba Market and Asiatic Library among others.

Although talks are on and BEST general manager Jagdish Patil said that the plan is being discussed, buses will be needed in the morning when the undertaking needs the buses to ferry the office-going crowd.

“The maximum number of commuters are mostly office goers, but let us see what happens,” he said.

Officials from both bodies are making efforts to hold the trial in the next four months.