It's all about money: BEST lets private vehicles to inside depots

The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking (BEST) has started allowing private vehicles to park inside the bus stations/depots to increase its revenue. The three locations allowed in the first phase are Santa Cruz, NSCI Terminus and Bandra Reclamation.

"For the time being three BEST locations have been opened for non-undertaking vehicles to park during the day on paying certain fee. As BEST needs to park its own buses at night, no pay and park facility is allowed during night," said Dr Jagdish Patil, General Manager of BEST.

This proposal was first moved in June last year, however, the approval came in the recent past. The maximum duration allowed for parking is 12 hours for which Rs200 plus service tax is levied for heavy vehicles. Similarly, Rs150 plus service tax is for light utility vehicles and for two-wheelers is has been fixed at Rs75 plus service tax.

Observers are of the opinion that levying Rs75 and service tax for two-wheeler is costly and BEST should consider lowering it. Secondly, more locations should be identified to monetize on the parking problem in a space starved metropolis of Mumbai.

Pay-and-park is one of the ways to cash-in on the BEST plots, but it is not much of a help to overcome the huge deficit of Rs2,400 crore and the losses it is operating in.