BEST GM hears out commuters’ plaints on new routes, conductor-less buses, wet-lease buses

IT professional Nazim Ansari has been seeking a two-km extension to the route of Bus Number 494 since 2018 to save on travel expenses. Vinayak Sonawane has been requesting that the route of Bus Number 504 Ltd be shifted to its previous route from Kharghar to Wadala depot, which was changed during the pandemic. These grievances and others were discussed in a meeting between passengers, passenger association Aapli BEST Aaplyachsathi and BEST’s general manager Vijay Singhal on Monday.

IT professional Nazim Ansari has been seeking a two-km extension to the route of Bus Number 494 since 2018 to save on travel expenses. Vinayak Sonawane has been requesting that the route of Bus Number 504 Ltd be shifted to its previous route from Kharghar to Wadala depot, which was changed during the pandemic.

Mumbai - 21st may 2013 - 81 best bus at Flora fountain, Photo by Prodip Guha (Hindustan Times)

These grievances and others were discussed in a meeting between passengers, passenger association Aapli BEST Aaplyachsathi and BEST’s general manager Vijay Singhal on Monday. “We started our discussion with the conductor-less buses, which BEST is running more of,” said Rupesh Shelatkar, president of Aapli Best Aaplyachsathi. Rupesh demanded that these buses be discontinued, as they delayed the bus and also led to passengers travelling without tickets.

The activists also suggested that the Chalo app be done away with, and the BEST’s own BEST Prawas app be upgraded. The app has been pushed aside to give the limelight to the Chalo app, co-founded by Mohit Dubey on the promise of improving the buses’ ridership in exchange for a cut in the revenue. Dubey is also its CEO.

Another point of contention was the many routes that were cancelled or curtailed in 2021. Aapli BEST Aaplyachsathi rooted for their restoration; it also recommended the extension and addition of routes and suggested routes for BEST to run double deckers on. The GM said they would only be able to restore the routes as and when new buses joined their fleet.

A much-awaited topic also discussed was the bus rapid transit system (BRTS), which would demarcate a separate lane for BEST buses. The GM said this was already under consideration but would take time.

One point of dissatisfaction was the policy of acquiring buses on a wet lease, to which the GM replied that this was a central government policy and would continue. The complaints against the wet-leased buses were that they were not maintained properly, were of poor quality, and had staff which was not well trained and would often go on strike.

According to Shelatkar, as the GM was new, he was unaware of most of the issues brought up and said he would look into them. “He gave the same answer for every issue. But we’re hopeful that some positive result will come out of it, the first being on the conductor-less buses,” he said. “We were promised that buses in Andheri, Dindoshi, Goregaon and other suburbs will get conductors.”

Passengers Ansari and Sonawane, however, felt let down by the responses of the GM and his demand that their requests be submitted in writing when they had already been sent earlier by email. “I have little hope that our demands will be heard,” said Ansari.

GM Singhal did not respond to calls or texts from HT.