BEST incurred Rs 200 crore loss in smart card scheme?

Seamless travel card has allegedly caused a Rs 200- crore loss to the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking.

Seamless travel card has allegedly caused a Rs 200- crore loss to the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking.

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The Go Mumbai card, first launched for BEST buses in 2007, was later extended to the central and western railway services. It was promised to be a transport card for seamless connectivity in Mumbai.

While BEST conductors were provided with hand-held devices to validate cards, GoMumbai devices were installed at all railway stations.

“The undertaking earned Rs 350 crore in 42 months from Go card, but has also lost more than Rs 200 crore revenue because of misuse and malfunctioning hand-held machines," alleged Suhas Samant, a Shiv Sena member of the BEST committee. He demanded that a committee be set up to look into the issue.

Om Prakash Gupta, general manager of the BEST undertaking, said: "These figures are imaginary. There was an issue about people who didn't refill their smart cards, but that might have affected the revenue by around 5%."

There are 165 centres in the city to recharge and issue a smart card. There were plans to extend the transport card to toll collection, taxis and autos, but it did not take off because Kaizen Automotive, the company involved in the project, did not supply enough hand-held devices.

Samant also alleged that a few BEST officials have favoured the company to generate revenue by the scheme.

Kaizen officials were not available for comment. “There was no audit or control over the revenue," he said.