BEST lays out detailed plan to procure 10,662 buses by 2025

MUMBAI: For the first time since its announcement of procuring 10,662 buses for the city, the BEST has laid out a clear-cut plan for this

MUMBAI: For the first time since its announcement of procuring 10,662 buses for the city, the BEST has laid out a clear-cut plan for this. According to its recent budget for 2024-25, it intends to have 3,337 buses in its own fleet by March 2025 while 7,285 buses will be on a wet lease. However, the Undertaking’s claims that it will have 8,222 buses (owned-plus-wet lease) by March 2024 are optimistic, given that the current size of its fleet is 2,950 buses and it is also struggling to get buses on time from its manufacturers.

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Despite this ground reality, BEST authorities are talking of getting 900 AC double decker e-buses, 2,100 single decker AC e-buses and 250 CNG single-decker buses in the coming months. The numbers come at a time when manufacturers who have a contract with BEST are badly behind schedule. BEST officials agreed that the deadline for procuring buses has been severely breached, and have now given ultimatums to the manufacturers.

“The manufacturer for 250-odd non-AC CNG buses has delivered only one bus till now,” confirmed a senior BEST official on condition of anonymity. “I have now asked for a detailed delivery schedule. Likewise, Causis E-Mobility, which has been given a contract for 700 AC double decker e-buses, has not delivered any. It claims that its prototype is ready and it will soon start delivering.” The BEST budget document states that of the 700 buses that Causis is due to deliver, 25 percent should have come by February 2023 and the remaining 75 percent by August.

BEST lays out detailed plan to procure 10,662 buses by 2025

The official said that BEST had received 50-odd AC double decker e-buses of the 200 that were contracted to Switch Mobility, and more would arrive soon. BEST authorities stated that they were following up aggressively with all the bus manufacturers.

“The BEST needs to openly inform citizens how they are going to bring in so many buses when they are already making losses,” said AV Shenoy, member, Mumbai Mobility Forum.

Meanwhile, in its budget estimate document for 2024-25, the BEST Undertaking has made an optimistic claim of adding a total of 2,239 AC e-buses by March next year to its owned fleet and another 3,300 wet-lease buses.

The Undertaking is also scrapping 541 buses that have completed their codal life from its owned fleet. As of April this year, the BEST fleet had 3,221 buses, which has now dropped to 2,950 buses. The Undertaking showed a deficit of ₹2,514 crore in 2024-25.