You might have to wait longer at bus stops for BEST undertaking buses from the next financial year, as the organisation is planning to cut down its fleet size by 150 to 4,200 buses.

At the BEST committee meeting held recently, OP Gupta, general manager of BEST undertaking, said that they would run 4,000 bus schedules, utilising 95% of the fleet. "We are going to bring down the fleet size from the current 4,350 buses to 4,200 buses," he said, owing to the decline in the number of passengers, which had led to losses.

BEST committee member Ravi Raja had raised the issue of the rapid reduction in fleet size from 4,600 vehicles, saying it resulted in an increase in wait times for buses from 15 to 20 minutes to 30 to 35 minutes, leading people to use share-a-taxis and autorickshaw services instead.

Gupta said the drop in daily average running kilometres (what a bus drives on its routes in a day), from 180 kilometres to 220 kilometres, was responsible for the increase in wait times.