Bhubaneswar: Achieving a major milestone, Mo Bus has crossed a daily ridership of 1 lakh yesterday, on October 14, 2019. This remarkable feat has been achieved in a short span of time, less than a year of starting the operation of Mo Bus. By achieving this substantial number of ridership, Mo Bus, the public transit
service run by Capital Region Urban Transport (CRUT), has established itself as a major mass transit facility in the capital region.
Yesterday a total of 101881 passengers took Mo Bus for their commute. On November 6,2018, Honorable Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik inaugurated the Mo Bus service with an objective of providing sustainable, comfortable and economically viable mode of transport for people of Capital Region. We are happy
to carry forward his dreams and fulfill his vision.
Since its inception, this was the first time that Mo Bus carried over 1 lakh passengers on a single day. The usual footfall is around 80000 per day. Mo Bus ridership used to be around 70000 till the month of August. After amendment in Motor Vehicle Act, there was sudden rise in ridership touching around 97,000 passengers on September 6 and around 94,000 on September 8. However, it is very heartening to see that Mo Bus has been able to retain those commuters. Consumer friendly initiatives like ‘Freedom Monthly Pass’, ‘Newspaper on Wheels’ and
‘Penalty for ticketless travelers’ have been appreciated by our loyal riders.
After Cyclone Fani, our ridership declined and came down to 30000-35000 per day. However, with effort by the CRUT team and constant support of our commuters, we have gained significant ridership in the last three months.
“In the month of May, our ridership was around 33000 and revenue also came down to Rs 5 lakhs. The consistent effort led to rise in ridership and revenue in September with an average of 80000 passengers and Rs. 11.6 lakhs per day respectively,” said Dipti Mahapatro, General Manager, Personnel and Administration & spokesperson, CRUT.
It is dream come true, achieving this magical figure a good two months ahead of projected target of December 2019. Ms Mohapatra further said, “The Housing and Urban Development Department had set a target to make the Mo Bus services available to 1 lakh passengers in Bhubaneswar, Khurda and Cuttack by December
2019.However,our internal objective, ‘Mo Bus,Mo Lakshya’ was to achieve this target before our first anniversary which is on November 6. Credit for this milestone goes to the riders who have trusted in us from the beginning of service and gave us constant feedback for improvement.”
Currently we are having a fleet of 200 buses. There is a need and demand for more buses with the increase in footfall. In next two-three months, network will be expanded and 50 old buses will be added to the fleet after refurbishment, the work
for which has started already. Out of 50 buses, 30 are from Cuttack, 10 are from Balasore and another 10 are from Bhubaneswar.
Moreover, as many as 50 electric buses (E-buses) have been sectioned by the Department of Heavy Industry under FAME India scheme phase II for intra-city and intercity operation to give a push to clean mobility in public transportation.
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