2.5-km dedicated bus lane likely by Feb

A dedicated lane for buses would be operational on a 2.5 km patch of the Western Express Highway from Jay Coach Flyover at Jogeshwari to Times of India flyover,Kandivili by the month-end. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA),the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking and the Mumbai Traffic Police have decided to try out the concept of dedicated lanes on this patch.

“The traffic police and BEST would be executing the project and the MMRDA would be providing infrastructure. If the project is successful,it can be extended to the entire stretch on the Western and Eastern Express Highays,” said P R K Murthy,Chief of the Transport and Communications division. It is still unclear when the project would be executed,but BEST has been asked to keep the buses ready by the end of this month.

This is not the first time that the MMRDA would be having dedicated lanes. A couple of years ago,a lane was dedicated for BEST buses on the Eastern Express Highway by creating barricades. However,the plan failed as speeding vehicles crushed the barricades and there was hardly any monitoring done on vehicles using this lane. “We would be erecting temporary barricades,” Murthy added.

The MMRDA had conducted a study for introducing BRTS services in the city. But the infrastructure agency decided not to execute the project and passed the buck to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. Last year,pulled up by the Ministry of Urban Development for not implementing the project,the MMRDA decided to at least conduct a study for having dedicated bus lanes .