Bus days ahead!

Finally the Final year Bachelor of Pharmacy (Semester VIII) examinations (Theory) of the University of Mumbai began today! I am appearing for the same, and I got my centre at Saraswati Vidya Bhavan's College of Pharmacy (SVBCoP) situated at Sonarpada (Dombivli) on the Kalyan-Shil Phata road. The easiest way to reach this centre from my home is by buses operating on the Belapur - Kalyan route. The buses on this route is operated by Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Transport or simply called KDMT.

The bus service (Route number 15) begins from Belapur Railway Station, and terminates at Kalyan Railway station (West). The bus route is via Juinagar Railway Station, Turbhe naka, Mahape naka, Kalyan Phata and Manpada. The frequency is about 20-30 minutes. The route length is around 36 kilometres, and I travel about 80% of the route length. The fare for my travel (Belapur Rly. Station to Sonarpada) is Rs. 15, and the journey time is around an hour. The first out of the seven exams was held today, I left home in the morning. Before leaving home, I made a visit to the temple, made prayers and then left home.

I reached Belapur station at around 0745. There was no bus in sight. I kept waiting, and finally the bus turned up at 0810. The scheduled departure was at 0815. The crew (Driver and Conductor) got down from the bus and went for a round of refreshments. They came back to the bus at around 0820. The bus finally pulled out at around 0825. The bus was one like in the image below: (The image is only for representational purposes)

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This bus in among about 20 buses taken on hire by the undertaking. The bus is owned by a private operator. The Conductor is employed by the undertaking. The corporation reportedly earns Rs. 26 per kilometre while it spends about Rs. 18 per kilometre (as per a news paper report). The bus is has an Ashok Leyland Engine conforming to Bharat Stage 2 (Euro 2) pollution norms.

The journey was comfortable, and the driver was a real maniac! He accelerated the bus heavily, and brakes hard! The return journey was even more interesting. The driver was quite sluggish while accelerating. The bus was finding is very hard to climb gradients! The bus on the return journey was MH05-R-1016.

The route cuts the Diva-Panvel railway line near Nilaje railway station. While returning from the examination centre, I noticed an unidentified WAG7 (tiger face) waiting at Nilaje station on the UP line with some rake.

The journey was overall very interesting. I'll make a much detailed post about KDMT later. Bye for now!

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