Citizens are pushing for public transport service to the airport, considering that about a lakh travel in and out of Mumbai every day.
Citizens are pushing for public transport service to the airport, considering that about a lakh travel in and out of Mumbai every day.
Transport experts and analysts brainstormed at a session organised by Moneylife Foundation at Dadar for a dedicated air-conditioned bus service to the Mumbai airport. The meeting ended with discussions and a draft memorandum that came up with an idea of forming a special body of public transport undertakings to run buses to the airport.
"Mumbai airport handles about 30 million passengers a year, including 9 million international and 21 million domestic fliers. In other cities across the world, there are good public transport services for air passengers in most cities across the world. It is ironical that Mumbai does not have any," said transport expert and IIT civil engineer Sudhir Badami, who drafted the initial plan.
Transport expert Ashok Datar said chief minister Prithiviraj Chavan, who holds the transport portfolio, should intervene in the matter. Datar has finalised a few routes where these buses could run, including one for south Mumbai, north Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai.
"People are being fleeced every day at the airports. Taxis wait in queues for eight to 10 hours for passengers to earn extra. Many thousands travel with only a hand bag, especially those in sales and IT sector. They are forced to take a costly taxi ride because there is no public transport," said senior journalist Sucheta Dalal, who has kicked off a campaign in Moneylife, a finance magazine.
S Sriraman, professor of transport economics, explained the difference between contract carriage and stage carriage buses and the options that were available for such a service.
"A special purpose vehicle on Public-Private Partnership basis can be perhaps be formed with BEST, TMT, NMMT, MSRTC, private players such as GVK and private bus operators. The body could then get to work out details of operation. The fare structure should be competing with fleet taxi fare, thus enable the SVP to make profit and keep improving services by various means including fleet augmentation," the draft memorandum suggested.
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