Unlock Day 1: 1.8 million travel by BEST buses; over 3 million travel by local trains in Mumbai

The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) witnessed an increase of 200,000 passengers on the first day of unlocking in the city on Monday

Published on: Jun 9, 2021, 24:28:46 IST

By Aroosa Ahmed, MUMBAI

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) witnessed an increase of 200,000 passengers on the first day of unlocking in the city on Monday. Nearly 1.8 million passengers travelled by the BEST buses in the city as opposed to 1.6 million passengers that travelled on Friday.

Even as the general public are not allowed to commute by local trains, the Central Railway (CR) and Western Railway (WR) witnessed an increase in the number of passengers as compared to Friday.

The number of passengers travelling by local trains includes daily tickets and monthly season ticket holders. The monthly season ticket holders are counted by railways have nearly doubled.

On Monday 1.9 million passengers travelled by local trains on the CR as opposed to 1.1 million passengers on Friday, while 1.3 million passengers travelled by local trains on Western Railways on Monday as opposed to 900,000 passengers on Friday.

Meanwhile, the BEST increased the number of buses on Tuesday and operated 3,369 buses in the city as opposed to 3,344 buses on Monday.

Queues of passengers for BEST buses were witnessed outside bus depots on Tuesday as well. “We increased the number of buses operating in the city on Tuesday as an increase in the number of passengers was witnessed on Monday,” said a senior BEST official. No standing passengers are allowed to travel by the BEST buses. The organisation has also made it mandatory for citizens to wear a face mask while travelling in the buses.