Ladies special BEST buses: The civic transport undertaking Mumbai, the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) on Wednesday announced to launch a dedicated bus service for women from November 6, 2021.
As per reports, BEST in its press release stated that the service will start on 70 routes in the city with 100 buses in its fleet. Out of the 70 designated routes, 10 of them will be "ladies special". It would mean that only women passengers will be able to travel by those buses.
In the rest of them, 60 routes, they will run "ladies first" services where women passengers will be given priority at the first bus stop.
The Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray had earlier directed to start a "ladies special" and "ladies first" service in order to provide ease in commuting to women passengers in Mumbai city, the press release said. It added that 90 per cent of the bus on the said routes will be air-conditioned.
BEST had operated some women-only services earlier too but they were discontinued after a recent route rationalisation, the release said. The said service has over 4,000 buses in its fleet. Before the COVID-19 hit India and took the lives of many in Mumbai, BEST buses used to carry more than 35 lakh passengers every day. The bus services were restarted in a staggered manner on June 7 this year.
The Delhi government is one such state in India that provides free rides to women in city buses for their ease. The scheme was introduced on October 29, 2019, and many women have reported having benefitted from it.
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