NMMT to ply 20 new midi-buses from May

Commuting by Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport (NMMT) buses will become more convenient.

The civic transport body announced that they have procured 20 new midi-buses this week. The buses are now lying at the Ghansoli depot and are slated for registration with the Regional Transport Office, after which, it will be plied on the road.

Officials said that according to the plan, the buses will start plying from May 1 onwards mostly on inter-city roads.

“We are going to run most of these buses on the ring route services as there is a high demand for it in areas like Vashi, Kopar Khairane , Belapur, Kharghar, Taloja, Roadpali, Ghansoli. We will have a meeting next week and the exact routes and duration of these buses will be chalked out depending upon the existing services and commuter’s demands,” said Sabu Daniel, chairman of Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport.

The NMMT received these midi-buses as part of the sixty buses it is slated to receive under the scheme. All the 60 buses were supposed to arrive last year. Since there was a delay in the manufacturing process, the first lot of the buses have been delivered first. The rest of the 40 buses is slated to arrive in another six months.

Commuters said that although it is a good news that the transport body will be soon be adding more services, the authorities should also maintain the existing and the new buses.

“Many of the NMMT’s earlier buses are not maintained well and they have broken window panes and torn seats. Along with the new buses, they should also repair the old ones for better convenience of the commuters,” said Shristi Dhaval, 29, a resident of Nerul.