A senior BEST official said the average waiting time across the city used to be “5-10 minutes” in the past.From over 4,000 buses for 45 lakh passengers 13 years ago to under 2,900 this week for 35 lakh passengers, BEST’s fall from grace has been astounding. With 63 buses on an average set to go off the roads every month over the next year, commuters are in a lose-lose situation.
The administration is struggling to replace the buses that are to be phased out in a year. The deliveries of new electric buses have been delayed over the past year, even after directives from CM Devendra Fadnavis.
The shortage of buses has hit hard—Mumbai has one bus for a population of 4,193, when the demand is for at least one per 2,000 population. Wait times at some stops extend up to 45 minutes. Dinesh Kulkarni, a regular bus commuter, told Mumbai Mirror that he had to wait for more than 30 minutes for a bus from Tardeo to Anushakti Nagar recently, as did commuter Alpesh Mhatre, who waited for a Regal Cinema-JVPD depot bus some days ago. Commuters also complained about the bus app not working at a few places or not providing ETA (expected time of arrival), making the wait more frustrating.
It’s hard to believe that the same mass transit system once ran like clockwork. A senior BEST official said the average waiting time across the city used to be “5-10 minutes” in the past. Some BEST commuters recalled that buses used to run on time, sticking to the timetable on 500 routes across the city. “But today, commuters are fretting and fuming as they wait for a bus whose ETA is also not accurate on the bus app,” said Ashish Pendse, a commuter from Dadar.
Former BEST committee member Sunil Ganacharya alleged that mismanagement by staff and poor planning are responsible for this mess. Another former committee member said BEST should maintain a bigger fleet.
BEST should also ensure affordable and sustainable mobility for daily commuters, urged activists from Aamchi Mumbai Aamchi BEST, a citizens’ forum. The forum had petitioned the BEST GM in the past to increase the fleet to over 6,000 buses in a year to meet such a demand.
All eyes are now on BEST’s new general manager, Dr Harshdeep Kamble, who replaced Anil Diggikar, to see if he can expedite the procurement of new e-buses and address passenger grievances. A senior BEST official from the traffic wing said the administration has drawn a roadmap on route deployment across the city, especially on busy routes. “We just need the new buses as per the contracts (see box). The moment we receive an adequate number of electric double-deckers and single-deckers, we can streamline the operations and ensure buses with better frequency, which will reduce the wait time at stops in the future,” he said.
Wait times can be shrunk significantly if BEST sticks to its plan of having 10,000 buses for Mumbai by 2027.
