BEST chairman calls meeting of transport, traffic dept officials later this week.
The airport connectivity plan has got a push. BEST chairman Sunil Shinde on Tuesday showed an interest in plying air-conditioned buses from the airport to different parts of the city.
DNA and Moneylife Foundation at Dadar in early October started a campaign on the issue with a number of transport experts and analysts attending a brainstorming session for a dedicated air-conditioned bus service for the Mumbai airport.
On Tuesday, Shinde heard out the city's transport experts who met him on the issue.
Shinde has now called a meeting of senior transport and traffic department officials later this week to work out details of the project.
"It is a nice idea and BEST will fulfill the expectations of Mumbaikars. We have taken the issue seriously and will work out details of the project," Shinde told DNA.
Shinde met transport expert and IIT civil engineer Sudhir Badami and traffic management expert Ashok Datar, who handed over a detailed plan of the project to him.
DNA had run a series of articles earlier this month on public transport connectivity to the airport and railway stations.
An earlier meeting of transport experts this month had ended with discussions and a draft memorandum of forming a special body of public transport undertakings to run buses for the airport.
"Mumbai airport handles around 30 million passengers, about 9 million international and 21 million, domestic. Most cities world over, there are good public transport for air passengers. It is ironical that Mumbai does not have any," said Badami, who drafted the initial plan.
"If you go to the airport at 5am, it is as crowded as CST or Churchgate during peak hours. The BEST can surely start a bus early in the morning when there is no traffic," Datar said.
Experts said five categorical routes, with a proper frequency of services, can be worked out by the BEST. "Since people travel in all directions, major routes that can be tried out are for south Mumbai, western suburbs, eastern suburbs, Thane and Navi Mumbai," Datar added.
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