A new bus service has been introduced to ferry visitors from Abu Dhabi City to the newly opened BAPS Hindu mandir, the traditional sandstone temple in Abu Mureikha, off the Abu Dhabi-Dubai highway.
The service will start from Abu Dhabi Bus Terminal and ply on the Sultan bin Zayed the First Street, popular as Muroor Street, through Hamdan bin Mohammed Street, to Al Bahyah, Al Shahama, and the BAPS Mandir as the last stop.
It will be about 90-minute journey from the city to the temple. The service will operate to the temple in addition to the existing stops served by 201 in the suburban areas.
Pujya Brahmaviharidas Swami from the BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha thanked the local authorities for the new bus service.
The service during the weekend will see the existing bus number 201 (Al Bahyah Souq) replaced with 203 (BAPS Temple). Community members have already started using the service available on Saturday and Sunday.
“This is a great service connecting the popular streets of Abu Dhabi to the temple, and will help the community members travel to the temple during the weekends,” Rakesh Yadav, a resident, who travelled to the temple on Sunday, said.
Watch video of residents using the service:
Community members need to have a Hafilat card to travel by bus. Recently, the Integrated Transport Centre (ITC) of the Department of Municipalities and Transport in Abu Dhabi integrated the city and suburban transport services into a standard service with fare set at Dh2 and an additional five fils for every kilometre crossed. Travelling without a bus card will result in a fine of Dh200.