Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport (NMMT), on Tuesday started 30 new midi buses in the city after scrapping 30 old CNG buses. City Mayor Jayawant Sutar inaugurated the buses at the depot in Turbhe.
The earlier buses were 40-seaters and the new ones are 32-seaters. General manager, NMMT, Shirish Aradwad said, “The CNG buses were over 10-years-old and high-maintenance. As per the rule we needed to change them. The new ones have the latest Euro 4 engine, which causes less pollution. As per the norm,They are what is recommended now,” While the older buses cost around ₹40 lakh each, the new ones cost ₹28 lakh. “We have spent around ₹8.5 crore in these diesel-operated automatic buses,” he said.
The new buses will run on narrow-road routes. “There are many routes like route number 21 and 22 which have to go through various narrow roads in the city. Midi buses being smaller in size will be able to drive through easily. These routes don’t have many commuters so less seats won’t be a problem. The ticket fare will the remain same,” Mr. Arawad said.
At present, NMMT operates a total of 476 buses on 77 routes. In the future, new buses will be introduced in Panvel and Thane areas as well by the NMMT.
