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Time of India
06-08-2025
- Business
- Time of India
BEST celebrates Foundation Day amid low fleet & declining ridership
Mumbai: The wait time at many bus stops continues to be 30-45 minutes, while the latest fleet is at a 15-year low of 2,688 buses as BEST celebrates its Foundation Day on Thursday. Daily ridership has also been hit, with a bus fare hike this year, and is down by at least 300,000 riders per day, sources in the undertaking said. BEST's Foundation Day could witness more protests than celebrations. More than 22 citizens' groups, including Aamchi Mumbai Aamchi BEST (AMAB), will protest outside depots on Thursday, while Congress party activists have also decided to join the stir, spearheaded by former Corporator Sheetal Mhatre. While BEST will launch a museum for double-deckers in an old non-AC twin-deck bus at Anik depot as part of the celebrations, commuters are fuming with the existing double-decker fleet frozen at 50 buses for nearly one and a half years. The plan for 150 more e-double deckers, which could have increased carrying capacity and reduced long queues at bus stops, is stuck in limbo. At the same time, two contracts to have 4,500 new wet lease electric AC buses for Mumbai have been delayed, with just 665 of these contractual buses delivered in the past couple of years, while BEST's own fleet has dwindled from 3,337 in 2019 to 419 buses. This has hugely impacted the overall fleet, which boasted of being more than 4,000 buses a decade ago and is reduced to 2,688 now. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Use an AI Writing Tool That Actually Understands Your Voice Grammarly Install Now Undo You Can Also Check: Mumbai AQI | Weather in Mumbai | Bank Holidays in Mumbai | Public Holidays in Mumbai "With low fleet and bad frequency, it is frustrating to wait for a bus for nearly 45 minutes," said bus fan Shubham Padave, adding that buses with 30-45 minutes frequency continued on many routes, especially in Andheri West to Goregaon West area, Jogeshwari West, Malad East, among other places. "While a few buses have arrived at some depots, they are yet to be registered by RTO, and the charging station work is also incomplete," he pointed out, demanding BEST speed up delivery and induction of new buses. Hussain Indorewala from AMAB said, "The picture is clear: there is a systematic effort by BMC and BEST administration to shrink Mumbai's public bus service. Despite being damaging in every respect (service quality, safety, reliability, and financial sustainability), the authorities have persisted with wet-leasing. There are also plans underway of giving away BEST lands to builders to generate 'non-fare revenue,' which will make BEST worse off. To oppose this systematic destruction, AMAB and 22 other civil society organisations have decided to protest outside 20 bus depots." Former Congress Corporator Sheetal Mhatre said there were no stringent penalties for delay in delivery of buses. "Mumbai's commuters are left stranded while contractors celebrate. From unpaid drivers to buses that exist only on paper, from unexplained fires to delayed procurements, every sign points to a deliberate effort to reduce BEST to nothing more than a nameplate."
Time of India
01-05-2025
- Automotive
- Time of India
BEST fleet at lowest with 170 buses out in May
Mumbai: The BEST fleet could further deplete to less than 2,700 buses this month as there is a much bigger scrapping wave in May when 170 JNNURM full-sized buses will be phased out. Also, a few midi buses are to be scrapped from the fleet. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Sources in the undertaking said that with the phasing out of 170 full-sized buses, 80% of full-sized buses owned by BEST will go off the roads. "The remaining such buses will be scrapped by Sept-Oct. After that, only one such full-sized bus owned by the undertaking will remain in the fleet for two years," a source said. Commuter rights activists demanded that BEST expedite the supply of new electric AC buses to replace old buses being phased out. "At present, the delivery is slow and this will impact the fleet size by month-end," said an activist. Currently, BEST's fleet comprises around 2,800 buses, with around 750 being those owned by the undertaking and the remaining on wet lease (belonging to private contractors). BEST has already signed contracts to procure 2,100 electric buses and another deal for 2,400 buses from a private contractor, and the majority of buses is to be added to the fleet. "Another contract for 250 e-buses was signed last year. But we are still expecting those to hit the roads," said an activist. Bus fan and regular commuter Shubham Padave said: "I remember prior to Covid, the waiting period for buses was 10-20 minutes, but now it has increased to 30-40 minutes, which is a concerning factor. Mumbai is a city that runs on time. If buses are not arriving on time, these buses are of no use to us. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now BEST should give us assurance that it will help us reach our destination in an estimated time." He further said: "Being a bus enthusiast and bus fan, my expectation from BEST, MMRDA, and BMC is that they try to implement a bus priority lane in the city. A decade ago, we had more than 100 double-decker buses in the city, which were, and still are, the pride of the city. For over a year, we have got only 50 double-decker buses." At a recently held public hearing organised by Aamchi Mumbai Aamchi BEST, citizens expressed grievances about the poor frequency of BEST buses and an acute shortage of buses on the roads. "We don't want to wait at stops for 30-40 minutes for buses. At the same time, we want BEST to procure its own fleet of buses, which can be managed properly as compared to leasing buses from private contractors wherein there is no control on the driver," said a commuter. Commuters said that there were issues with the wet lease buses, including breakdowns, fires, dissatisfied drivers going on flash strikes, and said that all of this causes inconvenience to daily passengers.
Time of India
27-04-2025
- Time of India
BEST to get 1,500 new buses by September
The BEST has announced that it will expedite the pace with which the buses are being inducted in its fleet. With at least 100-200 buses being added every month, the BEST fleet is expected to have a total of 1,500 buses by September or October, a senior official said. The fleet has already hit a low at 2,800 buses, with BEST-owned fleet reducing below 750 buses and this has left commuters fuming as they wait for over 30 minutes at most bus stops across the city. You Can Also Check: Mumbai AQI | Weather in Mumbai | Bank Holidays in Mumbai | Public Holidays in Mumbai Another decision taken by BEST this month is to shorten some of the existing routes. Recently, it split a few routes into two -- a long distance route from Andheri in Mumbai's western suburbs to Vashi in Navi Mumbai. Commuters are not happy with the bus routes being split and eventually some of these routes being stopped, said bus fan and regular traveller Shubham Padave on Friday. Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Play this game for 1 minute and see why everyone is addicted. Undo "For example, recently route 533L from Andheri to Vashi has been split in two halves. Route A533: APMC Vashi to Ghatkopar and route A433 is now from Ghatkopar to Andheri. Now for Ghatkopar - Andheri section, we already have a well established route A340. and for Ghatkopar - Vashi, we have route A C53 Exp and A 511. There is no need for splitting the long route which was beneficial to many,"he said. A senior official said that BEST will focus on deploying more buses on busy and profit making routes. This is to ensure that the maximum number of people are catered -- some places people are waiting and other places there are no passengers but buses are plying. Wherever there are hardly any passengers, there will be few or no buses. Also, bunching buses -- with 3-4 buses travelling back to back on the same route -- will be stopped immediately, an official added. The BEST also curtailed a route recently, route 502 Limited, from Nerul Sector 46/48 to Tata Power Station, Chembur. It is learnt that this has now been converted to Midi AC bus and curtailed as Nerul Sector 46/48 to Deonar depot bus. Similarly, two routes were suspended lately -- route 720 Limited from Malvani depot to Bhayander station East and route A-290 from Marol Maroshi bus station to Poisar depot. Said Padave: "The route 720 Limited was suspended last year but it resumed operations after a few months, and now it is suspended for a second time. Similarly route 290 was a Limited bus route which was converted to AC route (A-290) and benefitted commuters. But its suspension from service is a loss to many. The curtailment of the route from Navi Mumbai to Mumbai is also disappointing."
