Cash-strapped BEST mulls pay & park at depots

The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking (BEST) bus depots may become the new pay-and-park lots of Mumbai.

A proposal has been moved by the BEST administration to it's standing committee to convert a portion of selected bus depots into pay-and-park areas.

In a space starved metropolis like Mumbai, parking has always been a major problem and the transport body wants to cash in on it to reduce deficit in the budget. This looks like an option to explore into newer revenue sources.

As per the proposal moved, heavy vehicles will be charged Rs 200 for parking for 12 hours as against Rs 150 for light vehicles-four wheelers and Rs 75 for two-wheelers A private contractor will operate the parking lot by paying a lump sum amount to the BEST.

Including the recently opened Malad (Chincholi) Bus Depot, the BEST has 26 such bus depots all over Mumbai.

During day time the buses are out of city roads servicing commuters, while motorists look for parking spaces and several times end up on no-parking zones, which eventually results in towing of vehicles.

Earlier, the undertaking had toyed with various ideas to cash in on bus depot land, some of the ideas include selling part of the depot for commercial spaces or shopping plazas, or having a helipad (the idea had to be junked), leasing out part of the depot to private bodies.