Commuters travelling on Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport (NMMT) buses across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) have expressed anguish over the poor maintenance of the vehicles.
NMMT buses ferry at least 2.5 lakh passengers on a daily basis across neighbouring cities like Mumbai, Thane, Mira Bhayandar, Kalyan Dombivli, Khopoli and Badlapur. The deplorable condition of buses has forced the passengers to lodge their complaints with NMMC commissioner and NMMT high ups, but in vain.
The Airoli Citizens’ Forum (ACF), a citizens’ group, has written to chief minister Eknath Shinde highlighting the deteriorating maintenance of NMMT buses. “I have observed during my daily travels that the buses are poorly maintained by the contracted parties, leading to health hazards and putting a question mark on passengers’ safety. The quality of service and passengers’ well-being is compromised which needs to be addressed at the earliest. Meanwhile, we have dashed off emails to the NMMC officials for immediate action and nothing has been done on ground,” complained Satish Shenoy, a member of ACF.When asked, Yogesh Kaduskar, NMMT general manager, said, “With the advent of monsoon, a few buses developed technical snags leading to breakdown on roads. One of the contractors failed to execute maintenance of buses and it is now blacklisted. Meanwhile, we have made necessary arrangements with the firm that supplied buses for annual maintenance of our existing fleet. It will take some time to streamline the system. As the load comes on one party, the progression of maintenance becomes steady. We will tide over the situation in the next few days.”
Commuters alleged that many buses face safety related issues like brake failure, inferior tyre quality, faulty lighting systems and engine malfunction. “These safety hazards pose risk to passengers as well as motorists and pedestrians. The frequency of breakdowns and delays due to mechanical issues has increased over the period of time. Peak hours seem to be horrible due to overcrowding caused by the swelling number of non-functional buses,” said a transport activist Sharad Bhat.
