159 BEST buses to go off road from Jan end

Bus commuters in the city will soon have to brace themselves to wait for long at bus stops as the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) plans to scrap 159 buses to bring down the total number to 3,337 buses. by end of January. The loss making Undertaking is struggling to stay on its feet as they have also proposed to get 303 buses on a wet-lease basis.

On January 9, the BEST Committee approved to scrap 159 buses   by the end of January, after which 27 buses — including the Hybrid and Electric buses — will join the fleet. “We want to bring down the bus fleet to 3,337 buses and so we are scrapping these buses. We will talk to MMRDA about getting these hybrid buses,” said Surendra Bagde, General Manager, BEST.

These 159 buses will be scrapped by end of this month. “The administration should ensure that there are sufficient buses on road. Scrapping would mean that passengers will have to wait for longer time,” said Sunil Ganacharya, Committee member, BEST.

TROUBLED COMMUTE

On any given day at least 300-350 buses are inside bus depots for maintenance, which means further inconvenience for commuters. 

IN NUMBERS

BEST has bought 9,500 ETIMs 

Of the 27 depots, at least 9 depots are facing problems with electronic ticket issuing machines. 

Currently, the per ticket cost issued through ETIM costs 11 paisa/ticket

Rs 23 lakh Worth paper tickets may be bought by the BEST