surat in first five days after the 20 km long canal corridor route of bus rapid transit system brts was inaugurated 44674 people have travelled by this route this is despite the bus ride being made free for first month after state chief minister anandi patel inaugurated the much awaited canal corridor built at the cost of rs 304 crore on april 20 surat municipal corporation smc announced the ride to be free for all for the first month smc officials were expecting large number of people would take advantage of this free ride and travel by 19 buses that are plying at present at the frequency of 8 minutes on this 20 km route from dumas resort to sarthana jakat naka our expectation was at least 20000 people on a daily basis would travel by this route taking advantage of free ride however it has not happened we expect more and more people to use this route once they get used to it in coming days said an official of smc according to smc plans after the free ride is over they expect passenger load of at least 10000 people on daily basis however if not even 10000 are going to travel during free ride smc calculations could go wrong and it could prove to be a huge embarrassment for the local body according to figures available 740 people travelled on first day 9566 on second day 10783 on third day 11474 on fourth day and 12100 on the fifth day of operations