Mumbai: Women special commuters rise 600% compared to pre-Covid times – Times of India

MUMBAI: The women’s special buses in Mumbai have lately recorded more commuters on office-going routes during peak hours — with the growth being 600% as compared to pre-Covid times, a report released by BEST on Tuesday showed.
“While there were 54 bus trips daily for women commuters in 2019 and 2,500 office-going commuters and other women passengers were ferried, the number of trips increased this year to 393 across island city and suburbs,” the report stated. The number of women commuters, especially office-goers, have grown to around 18,000 daily in 2022.
Few popular routes are CSMT-NCPA, Churchgate to Nariman Point/ WTC, and in office areas of Colaba, Lower Parel, Andheri, Goregaon, Malad, etc.
BEST spokesperson Manoj Varade said: “We are encouraging more women exclusive buses for the city, which ply during morning and evening rush hour. This ensures that women do not have to struggle while boarding or alighting from buses and they travel comfortably to office.”
BEST recently announced its first woman driver, Laxmi Jadhav, who has been appointed to drive between Dharavi bus depot and south Mumbai. There are also two other woman drivers who will be plying the red buses soon. “The undertaking also has 90 women conductors, most of whom are deployed on these women exclusive special buses,” the official said.