BMC to float tenders for construction of bus terminus at Octroi nakas

Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is set to start work on the intercity bus terminuses at two redundant Octroi nakas on the border, outskirts of the city, this year. These terminuses will come up on the Octroi nakas in Dahisar and Mankhurd that are redundant since 2017.

Civic officials said that the primary objective of creating these bus depots is to decongest the roads of Mumbai. According to them, around 4,500 inter-state and inter-city buses enter Mumbai regularly, which eventually causes traffic jams in the city.

“After the terminus becomes operational, the outstation buses will not be allowed to enter the city from these points. This way, we will be able to decongest the roads of Mumbai by a large margin. The incoming passengers will be provided last-mile connectivity through BEST buses, metro rails, and shuttle vehicles. This project will be a global approach as many major cities around the globe have bus terminuses on the outskirts to prevent traffic congestion in the city,” said P Velrasu, additional municipal commissioner (Projects).

“These bus terminals will be called ‘Bus Ports’ and will be designed keeping in mind all the international standards. There is large space available in these Octroi lands, which we plan to use at maximum capacity,” Velrasu said.

There are four octroi nakas in Mumbai that are located at Dahisar, Mankhurd, Mulund LBS Road, and Mulund Eastern Express Highway. These nakas are large land parcels on the outskirts of the city from where the BMC used to collect Octroi fees from goods and services vehicles that used to enter or leave the city. Octroi fees were scrapped after the union ministry introduced Goods and Service Tax (GST) in 2017 and since then these plots have been redundant.

The idea of transforming four Octroi nakas into bus terminuses was floated back in 2019 and civic officials said that initially the two nakas at Mankhurd and Dahisar will be converted into bus terminuses.

Velrasu said that the BMC has already appointed a consultant for this project and the tenders for this project will be floated between July and August, this year.

“We have already appointed a consultant for preparing a mobility report and the process is in the final stage. We will be preparing the final draft soon following which tenders will be floated between July and August,” Velrasu said.

Officials said that after the tenders are floated, the BMC may rope in private stakeholders and operators to ensure that these terminuses are well-maintained. In his budget speech for the 2022-23 financial year, municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal had also proposed to transform this redundant Octroi nakas into transportation and commercial hubs.

Earlier on Thursday, Mumbai guardian minister Aaditya Thackeray took a review of this project following which he tweeted, “AMC Velrasu ji today briefed me on the foundational works of the upcoming intercity bus terminals at Mankhurd, Mulund-LBS, Mulund-Eastern Express Highway, and Dahisar octroi nakas. We chalked out actionable to fast-track this project.”