Mumbai: In keeping with tradition, the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply & Transport (BEST) has said that it will provide buses in sections of the railway that have to be shut down due to monsoons. BEST has said it will provide buses within two hours of worsening of the situation.
Co-incidentally, BEST drew up the plan on the very first day that Mumbai witnessed monsoon showers. While BEST officials have time and again reiterated the point that a BEST bus does not have the carrying capacity of a train, the idea is to provide an interim option to and fro to areas and stations where trains would still be running.
An official said, “At times when the tracks are flooded, the railway runs services on certain other sections. For instance, if trains are not available between Kurla and CST due to flooding at Sion, we provide services between CST and Sion or Kurla and Matunga so that people can take the train for the rest of their journey.”
Bus services headed for the city’s suburbs will also be increased when the railway is not able to restart suspended services. “We have asked the railway to inform us as soon as it senses disruption where services would take time to recover. We will provide extra services for passengers by a maximum of two hours, but will begin deployment of buses from depots that are in the vicinity of stations affected and also call in for more buses from slightly far-off depots in the meantime,” teh official added.
BEST chief public relations officer, Hanumant Gophane, said, “At times, when rail services cannot ply, the load is shifted to our buses so this is our disaster management plan this monsoon."
