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Privatisation not the BEST policy

ByHussain Indorewala
Mar 04, 2023 01:25 AM IST

MUMBAI Not many years ago, Brihanmumbai Electric Supply & Transport Undertaking (BEST) was widely regarded :as an exemplary public bus system in India

MUMBAI Not many years ago, Brihanmumbai Electric Supply & Transport Undertaking (BEST) was widely regarded :as an exemplary public bus system in India. In just ten years, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the BEST management have successfully demonstrated how such a system can be reduced to shambles.

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They have dismantled an affordable and reliable transport system, and put in its place an unreliable and unsafe network of buses owned, staffed and operated by various private contractors. The justification has been ‘efficiency’ and ‘viability’ – but the result has been operational and financial disarray.

Everywhere in the city, we can see long queues of commuters waiting for buses, sometimes for hours. Discontinuation of long routes, depleted fleet, diverted buses and failing operations have made travel an unbearable torture for Mumbaikars. Meanwhile, about thousands of BEST employees are without work, because BEST doesn’t have the buses to employ them. To make matters worse, service quality has worsened dramatically. It is important to highlight that these are not problems due to mismanagement, but the predictable outcomes of cost-cutting measures to make private operations profitable.

On February 22, a bus operated by a private company, Mateshwari, burst into flames, gutting the entire bus (third such incident in recent years). The BEST management responded by discontinuing all the 412 Mateshwari buses. It then diverted some of its own publicly operated buses to the Mateshwari routes, instead of replacing them. Similarly, a few months ago, when the contractor -- MP Group -- abruptly shut down its buses, the BEST had no choice but to divert some of its own buses on those routes. The trouble is that BEST has shrunk its own fleet from 4,700 buses in 2011 to a measly 1,691 today – simply to ‘promote’ privatisation. Each time this revered model of privatisation falters, the BEST management scrambles to apply band-aids, rather than restore BEST’s own services, which worked so well in the past.

In his latest budget, the municipal commissioner once again reiterated his commitment to “structural reforms” of BEST to reduce its reliance on the BMC. He also reduced the assistance to BEST from 1,500 crores in 2020 to 800 crores. The refusal of the authorities to acknowledge what is obvious is simply astounding. The BEST’s own data in the past showed that the cost per passenger kilometer was 19 per cent higher for private buses than for BEST-owned buses. If the sole mode of operation were to be public buses, BEST would spend significantly less than what it would spend to run a full fleet of private buses.

In other words, it is financially unjustifiable for BEST to shift to private operations, as it is doing at present. And recent experience shows, these so-called reforms have resulted in poor quality service, risk of accidents, and even risk to human life. This entire fiasco was predicted by citizen’s groups well before BEST began recruiting private players. And, as these problems are becoming more and more inconvenient, the BEST’s data is becoming less credible – the latest budget data is riddled with anomalies.

The BMC is the wealthiest municipal corporation in India, and has large reserves, including substantial reserves not tied to any specific purpose. Yet, it spends thousands of crores on maladaptive car-only projects like the Coastal Road. The problems of BEST can be easily overcome. In fact, the answers are fairly straightforward, and have been suggested by citizen’s groups and unions for many years: merge the BMC and BEST budgets, expand BEST’s own fleet to 6,000-7,000 buses, and subsidise operations. The BMC can also draw revenue from other sources, such as appropriate parking charges for private vehicles. It is clear that the determination to run BEST through private contractors is not evidence-based or logical, but ideological, favouring private firms over public interest. Do we want to revive an essential service in the form it has served the city so well? Or will the BMC and BEST continue this disastrous policy of privatisation?

(Hussain Indorewala is the co-convener of Aamchi Mumbai Aamchi BEST (AMAB), a platform of citizens for public transport.)

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