In a major boost to the road transport, the Mumbai Transformation Support Unit (MTSU) has completed the groundwork for a 116-km long Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS).
Top MTSU officials said the plan has reached a “convincing” stage and it is now up to the state government to take a call on it the same way it did with the metro and monorail networks.
The plan calls for high-capacity buses to run on eight arterial roads in Mumbai and its immediate outskirts. The ultimate aim, according to MTSU chairman BC Khatua, would be to take away a sizeable chunk of private car users off the roads.
The MTSU is planning to create a ring route covering maximum areas of Mumbai right from Ghodbunder Road in Thane to Eastern and Western Express Highways and Sion-Bandra route.
Designed on the median of these roads, the bus shelters will be connected with a pedestrian bridge to safely cross the busy arterial roads. These bus shelters will come between two flyovers on both the express highways and for faster commute will ply on the flyover.
“There will be halts at every kilometre and adequate space will be kept for fast corridor buses to overtake those halting at the bus shelters,” said Khatua.
The idea is to have air-conditioned and non-air-conditioned buses and a combination of fast buses that will not halt at all stops and slow buses.
With the number of vehicles in the city increasing by around 96,000 every year, and the crowd inside suburban trains reaching what an official called “inhuman” levels, MTSU authorities believe a robust
BRTS could be the answer.
While the BRTS has been thought about for several years now, it is now, according to MTSU officials, that they have been able to zero in on an agency which could execute it.
According to officials, the BRTS would be executed by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and its transport agency the BEST by creating a special purpose vehicle. While costs are tentative, at current prices, the 116-km system could see a cost of nearly Rs3,000 crore. The entire blueprint when approved can be executed in a period of 5-6 years, but a couple of important corridors can be ready in just 2 years.
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