Mumbai will get 200 new AC buses with private contractor operating them

Mumbai will get 200 new AC buses which are part of 450 new buses that will come under wet-lease in the tube of Rs 612 crore. This will not only augment the bus fleet of BEST Undertaking which is at its lowest at 3310 buses, but is also expected to improve services provided to the 28 lakh Mumbaikars using these buses every day.

Over the past few years the bus fleet of BEST has dwindled and so this would be one of the largest inputs received over a period of time. "We expect the buses to start arriving from July-August. In the first phase 25 percent of the total buses will join the fleet and others will enter gradually," said Surendra Bagde, General Manager, BEST Undertaking.

The new buses will also include 200 AC buses. Right now, the Undertaking doesn't have AC bus in its fleet, while the 25 Hybrid AC buses from MMRDA are yet to come. As per the understanding with the BEST, there will be two contractors who shall supply 225 buses each at a cost of Rs 306 crore. These buses shall include 100 AC Mini buses, 100 non-AC Mini buses and 25 non-AC Midi buses.

Mini buses will have 21 seats and allow 9 standees while Midi buses will have 31 seats with 12 standees. These being small buses, the BEST intendes to run it on feeder routes especially connecting commercial offices, business districts and market places from stations which is normally catered by share-taxis and share-autos.

Under this scheme, private contractor will supply these buses along with drivers. The BEST administration claims that they will save Rs 8-33 per km by operating these buses. Right now, the BEST earns revenue of Rs 57-58 per km while incurs expenditure of Rs 103-104 per km. The least saving of Rs 8-10 is on Mini AC buses which is barely anything even when they were operating the King Long buses, which are off-roads now.

The political parties representing the BEST Committee are stating this as a step towards privatization. "The BEST is heading for privatization. If the contractor shows llacuna in carrying out their roles then BEST and BMC cannot shirk their responsibilities. The BMC needs to take onus of the failure and repay the shortfall in revenue earned due to wet-lease," said Ravi Raja, member, BEST Committee from Congress.

The Mini buses will have to run 3500 kms while Midi buses will have to run 4000 kms. The BEST will pay Rs 48 per km for the Mini AC bus, Rs 41 per km for the non-AC Mini buses and Rs 45 per km for non-AC Midi buses.

"It is surprising that the contractors have brought down their cost to meet the base price; heavily. By introducing wet-lease, it only means that the administration is unhappy with its own maintenance practice and service providing abilities. Moreover when they are stating that public money will be saved, they are not calculating the retirees of conductors in next 2-3 years, which itself costs Rs 24 per km," said Sunil Ganacharya, member, BEST Committee from BJP.

Moreover the BEST unions have threatened to go on strike from February 15 against wet-lease. "This is a way to privatise BEST. Starting February 15, the employees will go on strike against it," said Shashank Rao, BEST Sanyukt Workers Union.

Earlier mid-2017 the workers went on two-days strike which had led to chaos. It was regarding timely salaries paid to the employees and giving Diwali bonus. However the administration has defended this step as they claim that wet-lease is implemented in cities like Delhi, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad etc and that even MSRTC is implementing it.

"The people want flexible and convenient bus services. We want to reduce the time taken to for a bus to reach the stops and also improve overall services. These buses will run on our routes and on an average each bus will complete 145-150 kms per day. There is also possibility that if the bus runs on point-to-point basis then in near future the bus driver can only issue tickets," added Bagde.

• Bus fleet: 3310
   
• New buses under wet-lease: 450
   
• AC buses: 200
   
• Cost of these buses: Rs 612 crore

RATES FOR THESE BUSES:

• Rs 48 per km: Mini AC bus
   
• Rs 41 per km: non-AC Mini bus
   
• Rs 45 per km: non-AC Midi