travel under a Metro

Had an occasion to travel by auto rickshaw from Andheri west to Goregaon west via the JVPD, Link Road. Horrible travel is just an understatement, it was atrocious to say the least, exacerbated by the metro line construction going on from D.N. Road onwards. Two ambulances were stuck, pealing away, but no respite in sight from the unending chaos on the road. There are multiple bottlenecks on this stretch no less due to metro construction but even otherwise also. The barricades put up due to metro work is a huge hindrance as the roads have been narrowed down considerably leaving very little space for traffic to move. To cap it, the roads are in terrible condition with potholes at many places. The paver blocks have done the most damage on the roads in Mumbai. But absolutely the worst stretch is the link road from Goregaon/ oshiwara bus depot to shashtri nagar, the traffic was utterly crawling, it was maddening to say the least. Don't know how much of this traffic is going to get mitigated when the metro line is finally done, maybe for six months, but I guess then the traffic will be back to the same old snarls like before. Life of a Mumbaikar travelling under a Metro is an experience never to be forgotten.

BEST bus no. 262

The BEST should add more services during the morning & evening peak hours on the no. 262 Goregaon Station - Ayyappa Mandir route. I say this because many passengers take the share auto from the end of M.G. Road during this period and even the share autos are not available most of the times, so a big queue is formed there also. So this is a good opportunity for BEST to capture that market of short distance passengers to Goregaon station. I would suggest to keep one bus every 15 minutes starting from 7.30 a.m. to 10.30 a.m. in the morning and from 4.30 p.m. to 8.30 p.m. In the evening also there is a huge shortage of auto rickshaws from the Goregoan station to Link Road, so this service could be very beneficial for the people plus it will also get some good business for BEST. They will get passengers from Bangur Nagar, Motilal Nagar, and all along M.G. Road. BEST needs to be innovative to get more business in view of the fact that their power division is not subsidising their transport division anymore and their huge losses. Rickshaws will lose business but who the hell cares for them considering their blatant refusals to ply passengers except to their favoured destinations.