Owing to the increasing losses, the Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport (NMMT) has started a return ticket scheme. “Like train tickets, passengers can now buy return tickets with a 10% discount,” NMMT general manager Shirish Aradwad said.
Mr. Aradwad said the losses of the NMMT have gone up to ₹5 lakh every day after the BEST slashed its fares. “This new scheme won’t help us recover the losses completely, but will reduce them a little.”
The buses from Kharkopar and Bamandongri are usually empty. Besides, the reduced fares of BEST buses have affected the ridership between Vashi and Airoli. The loss in per day sale of tickets has gone up to ₹4 lakh while that of passes to ₹1 lakh. The monthly loss of the NMMT has reached ₹6.5 crore from ₹5 crore.
Implemented from this month, 200 tickets were sold out on the first day of the implementation of the new scheme. Now the number has gone up to 1,000. The return tickets would be valid for 24 hours. “If a person buys a return ticket from Nerul to Vashi and after coming back to Nerul, he wants again to go to Vashi, he will have to purchase a second ticket of single journey till Vashi as his return ticket would be valid for 24 hours. The ticket will have date and time of the issue,” Mr. Aradwad said.
