Kalyan-Dombivli city bus service starts today

The auto commuters are not billed on meter and people have to shell out whatever the unscrupulous drivers demand or invest in their own two-wheelers. This in turn is responsible for the increasing vehicular pollution and traffic bottlenecks in the crowded Kalyan-Dombivli localities whose roads are generally narrow.

Now with the projectis poised to get on track, a satisfied KDMT chairperson Prakash Penkar said, “There were a number of hiccups in the appointment of staff and the getting the paper-work done. But, most of the time we were constrained due to the code of conduct being consecutively in force (Nov 97-July 98) due to repeated elections.”

It was none other than the popular TMC commissioner T S Chandrashekhar who mooted this idea when he was in charge of KDMC and got it approved on November 16, 1995. After Chandrashekhar’s tenure the plan was virtually put into cold storage and it was only in March 1997 that the KDMT committee was formed. Following this a team of consultants (ex-officials of the MSRTC) was appointed. They identified 36 routes on the basis of financial viability.

“Of these we plan to kick start the project with 12 routes first,” informed Penkar. (SEE BOX) He further pointed out that the KDMT would extend services to Navi Mumbai within six months, `since this is the most profitable route going by the success ofthe buses being plied by the Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport (NMMT).’ When asked whether this will lead to a clash, he explained, “We will negotiate with NMMT so that KDMT is allowed to ply as many buses as they send here.”

“Meanwhile,” he further pointed out, “The MSRTC has communicated even before the service takes off that we should take over the routes till Shahapur.” He added, “This increased burden will see us increasing our fleet by another 30 buses.”