As soon as there was announcement that the no private buses on Eastern Freeway till October 21, the travel agencies of Mumbai got irked. They believe this is frequent harassment in the name of traffic control. Many travel agencies had to face business crises due to these announcements. To facilitate smooth movement of vehicles during the ongoing construction activities of the Mumbai TransHarbour Link Project 1, the traffic police have announced that there shall be no plying of private buses on the Eastern Freeway on both south and northbound arms till October 21.
Gautam Jethwa from Hans Travels told Afternoon Voice, “Every now and then government is targeting private companies for the issue of traffic, road development, or any construction activities our buses come at a certain period of time not every hour so they should not only stop private buses but also other vehicles. Now changing routes will impact our business as many of the passengers won’t travel to different pick-up areas.”
If the government is so good at managing their government transport which is State Transport (ST) buses then why people are still switching to private this is due to a lack of service to the people. We private bus owners pay all the taxes on time but still, we are penalized for such things,” Jethwa further added.
Dev Soni from Sitaram Travels said, “If traffic police have shared these orders then we will follow it and now we will manage to travel on the alternative or other route.”
Kishore from Neeta Tours and Travel said, “They are not aware of it and did not get any notice of any of the private buses won’t be allowed.”
Akshay Kumat from Vaibhav Travels said, “It will not impact us much as we don’t use the freeway and our buses are running on different routes for the convenience of our passengers.”
Vinayak Dandane from Shree Sunkai Travels said, “Usually we do get notice if there is any changes or if any private buses are not allowed in a particular road but this time we have not received it yet and if private buses are not allowed on certain roads then we will follow but our customer will be in trouble as they have to another location for their pick-up or travel.”
Yogesh Pawar from Gaurishankar Travels said, “Why these people only targeting private buses are when we are paying all the taxes to the government and how come traffic can be managed by not allowing private vehicles.”
“If government has so much of issues then they should upgrade the service and maintenance of government transport rather than putting restrictions on private buses. Another point to this is whenever there is accidents caused by government transport that fault is not highlighted by the media and if there is any flaws from private buses it gets highlighted immediately” Pawar further added.
