Submitted by: Chandrarekha Mantri
Complaint Details:
A bus stop is a designated place where buses stop for passengers to board or alight from a bus. These are normally positioned on the roads or highways. Some bus stops at busy locations have shelter with seating arrangement while less busy bus stops use a simple pole and flag to mark the location. Bus stop at Mukesh Chowk on the busy Nepean Sea Road in Mumbai, where nine buses coming from J Mehta Marg and Simla House with route numbers 37, 63, 77, 104, 121, 122, 135, 151 and 156 stop, is only marked with a simple pole and flag to mark the location. The place is very unsafe for passengers waiting for buses. There is no shelter as at other busy bus stops along the routes of the these buses. Throughout the day, drivers have been carelessly driving their vehicles towards the passengers waiting at Mukesh Chowk bus stop and/or parking their cars at Mukesh Chowk bus-stop. I also caught an employee of a shop in Navjivan Building behind the bus stop sweep the shop and throw dust on the road towards the passengers waiting at the bus stop. Yesterday at 9:15 a.m., when I was standing waiting for bus at Mukesh Chowk bus stop, a driver in a white car bearing number DD 03 C 3029 drove his car towards me at the bus stop. He then told me “hato” meaning “move aside”. I reminded him that the place is a bus stop. When I did not move, he kept moving his car back and forth towards me. I felt very unsafe as shopkeepers of Navjivan Building and other passengers waiting at the bus stop also turned into mute spectators. Then I called up Police Control Room for help. When he heard me calling the police, he took his car back and parked it in the compound outside Birla School. A woman police constable reached by 9:33 a.m. and called for the driver of the car. The driver came and admitted that he told me “hato”. He was taken to Malabar Hill Police Station. Such incidents at Mukesh Chowk bus stop outside the shops in Navjivan Building happen throughout the day. B. E. S. T. Undertaking must provide shelter and guards for the safety of the passengers at Mukesh Chowk or shift Mukesh Chowk bus stop to a near by location.
