Seems like its the season of goodies from the government...With our Finance Minister coming out with a budget full of niceties - tax slabs increased , lower excise rates etc etc.Mumbai's very own BEST buses have come up with a great way of making an average Mumbaikar happy.They have come up with a Rupees 20 ticket that allows you to travel in any BEST Bus for that day.
There already was this concept of a "full-day-ticket".But it was priced at Rs.40.Now this did not make any economic sense for most people.As the longest one way route in a normal BEST bus would still not be more than Rs.20.So only those who travel a lot - changing lots of buses in between - would have been able to benefit from it.But now its a totally different story.With a full-day-ticket for Rs.20 , even a person who travels everyday with a one way expense of Rs.11 stands to save more.Add to that the problem of loose change would be scaled down to a huge extent.Another good thing that they have come up with is more AC buses and at a reduced fare at that.All this does augur well as I believe that BEST in particular , and public transport in general is one of the ways out to reducing the ever increasing traffic + pollution problems in this city.Agreed that the number of BEST buses need to increase by a huge margin.Buses (just like local trains) in peak hours are too crowded and passenger safety is thrown out of the window.We need more buses please!!!Carpooling is another great way of reducing the number of vehicles on the road.And with four wheelers becoming cheaper , we might as well see the Nanos replacing the autos.;)
