More than 5,700 Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation buses are being assigned to Konkan-bound Ganeshotsav services from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, raising concerns about reduced bus availability for passengers in other parts of the state.
Mumbai | September 9, 2026
The allocation includes 2,000 buses from Mumbai, 3,091 from Thane and 645 from Palghar, for a combined total of 5,741 buses, according to a report by Loksatta. The buses are being arranged to serve the large number of passengers travelling from the Mumbai region to their native villages in Konkan for the festival.
The report said MSRTC currently has about 14,000 operational buses. With nearly half of that fleet being assigned to Konkan services, buses are being brought into the Mumbai region from other parts of Maharashtra. The arrangement has raised questions about how the corporation’s limited fleet is being distributed between festival demand and regular passenger services.
Ganeshotsav travel to Konkan has traditionally involved advance group reservations by villages and community groups. This year, the transport response also includes free bus services announced through political initiatives. The report attributed the planned operation of about 2,900 free buses to the initiative of Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
The additional services are intended to meet the seasonal demand generated by passengers travelling to Konkan for Ganeshotsav. However, the diversion of buses from other divisions has led to dissatisfaction among passengers who depend on regular MSRTC services elsewhere in the state, according to the report. The large movement of buses towards the Mumbai region has also been linked to concerns about congestion and pressure on transport operations.
The reported allocation highlights the operational challenge faced by a state transport corporation during major festivals: meeting a sharp, geographically concentrated increase in demand without reducing services for passengers in other regions. In this case, the concentration of thousands of buses in the Mumbai–Konkan travel corridor has made fleet availability the central issue.
The report also said the arrangement could result in a loss of about Rs 12 crore for MSRTC, although the supplied report does not provide a detailed calculation or an official financial statement supporting that estimate. The corporation’s final operational schedule, the duration of the special deployment and the restoration timetable for buses borrowed from other divisions were not specified in the report.
The reported services are linked to the annual Ganeshotsav travel period, when passengers from Mumbai, Thane and Palghar form a major stream of traffic towards Konkan. Further details from MSRTC on the allocation, financial impact and regular-route adjustments would clarify how the special services are being managed alongside the corporation’s routine network.
