Citizen’s Initiative For The BEST
Sounding a well-meant alarm on the series of 'developments' regarding BEST bus services, is Aamchi Mumbai Aamchi BEST (AMAB), a forum of citizens for public transport. "Contrary to the public stance of the BEST, it appears that there is a planned effort to wind down BEST bus services step by step, so that, in place of the outstanding public transport service it once used to be, we will be left with just the shell of BEST," says AMAB convenor Vidyadhar Date.
Interestingly, the BEST General Manager’s proposed Budget for 2019-20 claims that BEST will raise the total fleet by 713 buses by the end of 2019-20, by relying on 'private contractors'. However, the BMC has not provided a single rupee of grant to the BEST in 2018-19 (as has been the case the previous three years) and the GM has not budgeted for a single rupee of BMC grant in 2019-20. As AMAB points out, the BEST has suspended the issuing of bus passes, on the plea that it is unable to issue smart cards due to the lack of e-ticketing machines.
"The management and the BEST Committee are responsible for the present situation, in which an existing vendor of e-ticketing machines has been removed without a replacement. This has effectively raised the cost of travel for large numbers of low-income regular commuters who rely on passes and concurrently, more and more commuters are leaving BEST," adds Date. Interestingly, over the last year, the BEST has failed to collect Rs 320 crore from builders who were given redevelopment rights for several depots despite the corporation complaining of operational losses.
"The BEST has already discontinued one-fifth of its routes. It has also reduced its fleet by over 900 buses. It has repeatedly raised its fares, far more steeply than the general level of the Consumer Price Index, to the point at which share-taxi and share-auto services become competitive, and has thus lost one-third of its passengers in the space of a few years," maintains AMAB in an official statement.
"All of BEST’s issues, over the recent years have been created by government policy that has single-mindedly encouraged the private automobile sector creating unbearable congestion on roads, lack of investment in upgrading and improving BEST fleet and operations, and repeated fare hikes that have led to a drop in ridership," maintains Date.
"The real crisis of BEST is the decline of public bus ridership and the ruinous expansion of private transport, which has led to the growth of traffic congestion, pollution and deterioration of public welfare (as those who can least afford it are made to pay more for an essential service, or give it up). Ridership of BEST buses has fallen by a third, from 42 lakh to 28 lakh or even less, in the space of a few years. If we continue on the present path, Mumbai’s public bus system, once the pride of the city, will soon be irrelevant," he adds.
AMAB has listed three key demands from the BMC and the BEST Management to get BEST on track. These include firstly subsidising and operating BEST as part of the BMC Budget. The BMC being the richest municipality in the country, with an accumulated Rs 69,000 crore of fixed deposits, refuses to fund an essential service of the city. BEST bus transport has always received a financial subsidy from the BEST’s electricity division. It must now be subsidised directly by the owner of the whole undertaking, namely, the BMC which should provide for losses caused by BEST’s unplanned fleet expansion of 2006-10 by writing off its ‘loans’ to BEST, and paying off the other borrowings BEST has had to make in the recent period. This will clear the backlog and help BEST start with a clean slate.
Secondly, BMC should set aside its privatization-cum-fare hike plan and consult with unions, urban affairs experts, transport experts and people’s organizations to formulate a plan for revival of public transport, including BEST. Increasing public transport ridership, for the health of the city, should be taken as the primary criterion on the basis of which to judge performance. AMAB maintains that the BMC must introduce bus priority lanes on all arterial and link roads in the city. This will reduce road space for cars, distribute road space more equitably, and make buses more efficient. The civic body must introduce appropriate parking fees to create an income stream for BEST, and tax private automobiles for the multiple costs they impose on the city in terms of road maintenance, congestion, and pollution. Also, the BMC should scrap the unsustainable, expensive and regressive Coastal Road project and, instead, allocate the Rs 1,500 crore for that project to support and improve the BEST.
Thirdly, every attempt must be made to make BEST affordable and accessible. Mumbai’s bus transport is already too expensive in relation to the incomes of its users which has led to a fall in bus ridership.
To make BEST as a public transport more affordable for students, the price of student passes must be reduced along with an increase in short-distance buses on feeder routes to train stations. Traffic must be regulated at train stations to ensure buses get priority.
AMAB maintains that BMC and BEST stop the discontinuation of routes. The BEST must be run with the spirit and commitment of a public service, and must be operated even on so-called ‘unprofitable’ routes.
During the 2005 Mumbai floods, when the city’s lifeline - the train service came to a screeching halt with the rail lines inundated with the rainwater, the BEST Bus Service - the city’s second lifeline came to the city’s rescue. All the stranded passengers were dropped safely to their respective destinations despite 900 buses being damaged in the bargain and the death of more than a 1,000 persons. BEST plied 109 extra buses and lived up to the reputation of being Mumbai’s second lifeline.
“It was a scary situation and I thought I’d never reach home ” recalls entrepreneur Firoz Merchant. “With the train service called off indefinitely and the roads filled with chest-deep waters, it was a scary situation,” says Firoz who vouches for BEST Bus Service’s performance.
“It was then that the city’s most-complained-about public bus service came to its people’s rescue and in good time. I recall on that fateful July 26th night while commuting by the BEST Bus, the driver didn’t have a mobile and had borrowed mine to call his wife and inform her that he was stuck and would be late,” maintains Feroz who took a good 8 hours to reach home. But, reach he did, unlike thousand others who just didn’t make it…alive!
“Since then, till date, each time it rains a little more than usual, I dump the train and take the bus instead. I know that the trains may stop due to the rains but the BEST Bus won’t,” he says with a distinct sense of pride.
That said, Mumbai hasn’t learned vital lessons from indicators that point to the inevitable. The city seems set to phase out the one and only public short-distance, pan-city transportation mode available. Mumbai’s recent deplorable rise to the top of the list of world’s polluter cities, beating even Delhi, can be attributed to a 400 per cent rise in vehicular traffic in the city since 2001. Mumbai’s priorities are shifting, much on the lines of Delhi, in favour of private transport.
There is a price a nation pays for growth and ‘development.’ The rise in income, accessibility to loans and a desire to ‘own’ a vehicle are triggers. So, the number of privately-owned vehicles is on the rise in Mumbai and it’s only when one is stuck in traffic while commuting to and from work that realises the futility of ‘owning’ a vehicle. With the rise in number of vehicles has increased the congestion and a concurrent slump in the average traffic speed.
Although more than 88 per cent of commuters in Mumbai use public transport, the city having the largest organised bus transport network among major Indian cities, moves to privatise segments of the BEST by introducing ‘wet leasing’ to boost profitability were resisted only by a handful of persons that too affiliated to workers’ organisations.
There are protests, albeit few in numbers, demanding stalling discontinuation of routes, subsidising and operating BEST Buses as a part of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), introduction of bus priority lanes on all arterial and link roads in the city and a reduction of fares for the three shortest distances to ₹ 4, ₹ 6, and ₹ 8.
In Mumbai, the public transport service hasn’t been an enterprise but an essential service and must be treated in a manner such. That said, the state government or the civic authorities that head the cash-rich Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, contrary to popular view, feel otherwise and couldn’t care less either. Instead of being operated by a public entity in the interest of the public and run on public money, the BEST Bus Service is being pitted against private entities. The corporation, while looking to maximise profits even with the BEST Bus Service, fails to recognise that the users of these services are citizens, not consumers.
“You simply cannot be looking to make a profit with the BEST Buses. It is a service for the poorest of poor who cannot afford to own a car or use a private transport service such as Ola or Uber,” says octogenarian and retired government employee Mrs Suman D, who yet avails a bus whenever she has to “travel from Colaba to Babulnath Temple every Monday to offer obeisance to Lord Shiva.” And Suman, finds most of her friends - from all age groups - catching up with all the gossip ranging from politics to the weather - all in the BEST Bus No 123 as it meanders along the Queen’s Necklace before reaching Chowpatty and, finally, the Temple.
“Throughout my life, I’ve never seen a BEST Bus driver lose his cool despite all the road rage and chaos triggered by private vehicles and two-wheelers that break every traffic rule in the book and beyond,” she says. “And, why would I stop using a service that is so affordable and so civil to me unlike private services offered by Kali Peelis and Ubers whose drivers are outright uncouth,” adds Suman.
“It is an ordeal trying to walk on the roads today in Mumbai,” says Suman who suffered a nasty fall last year due to a motorcyclist hitting her while overtaking a parked taxi after a fiery argument with its driver. “Nobody has the time or patience in this city, any longer,” she says. “Each time, I have to walk to a nearby public garden, a few lanes away from my home, I dread stepping out on the road. It’s just a matter of time before someone hits me again,” maintains Suman who has now begun carrying a bright-red umbrella with her each time she steps out to ensure that, while on the road, “she doesn’t fall on someone’s blind spot.”
Today, the BEST Bus Service’s fleet transverse the metropolis and operate in Thane and Navi Mumbai districts too. The second-largest mode of transport in Mumbai after local trains transports about 28 lakh persons every day, down from the 41.9 lakh persons that would commute by BEST buses in 1997-98.
Putting forward its people’s plan for BEST, an Aamchi Mumbai Aamchi BEST movement, has included demands for subsidised public transport, accessibility and affordability, dis-incentivising private transport, and accountability and consultation in the decision-making process. Today, a total of 785 BEST buses are detained in depots every day owing to a staff shortage. Worse still, 112 routes have been suspended and 95 trips cancelled since August 2017, increasing the gap between buses on a route. Also, 230 air-conditioned buses have been ‘retired” since April 2017.
Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, India’s richest municipal body, does not subsidise BEST. It instead furthers loans to BEST, charging it interest thereby crippling it even further. The issues for BEST workers range from reduced wages, lack of bonuses and increasing contractual employment for workers, whose numbers are dwindling.
Today, even as more people use private transport instead of public transport, there could be ingenious ways to subsidise the BEST Bus Service. For one, the money earned from parking could be used to subsidise BEST Buses, offer activists.
This report has been prepared for DraftCraft International’s flagship initiative The Public Space Project in conjunction with its pilot endeavours - The Right To Walk Project, The Gateway of India Project and The Elephanta Island Project to research, analyse and determine the rights of the common man, the pedestrian, the tourist and the rights of the masses availing public transportation in contrast to those privileged few owning private vehicles. The initiative examines laws and policies regarding transport, access to public spaces and privacy guaranteed to all by the State in context of the Right To Equality, Freedoms and the Right to Life.
 |
| The real crisis of BEST is the decline of public bus ridership and the ruinous expansion of private transport |
"The management and the BEST Committee are responsible for the present situation, in which an existing vendor of e-ticketing machines has been removed without a replacement. This has effectively raised the cost of travel for large numbers of low-income regular commuters who rely on passes and concurrently, more and more commuters are leaving BEST," adds Date. Interestingly, over the last year, the BEST has failed to collect Rs 320 crore from builders who were given redevelopment rights for several depots despite the corporation complaining of operational losses.
"The BEST has already discontinued one-fifth of its routes. It has also reduced its fleet by over 900 buses. It has repeatedly raised its fares, far more steeply than the general level of the Consumer Price Index, to the point at which share-taxi and share-auto services become competitive, and has thus lost one-third of its passengers in the space of a few years," maintains AMAB in an official statement.
"All of BEST’s issues, over the recent years have been created by government policy that has single-mindedly encouraged the private automobile sector creating unbearable congestion on roads, lack of investment in upgrading and improving BEST fleet and operations, and repeated fare hikes that have led to a drop in ridership," maintains Date.
"The real crisis of BEST is the decline of public bus ridership and the ruinous expansion of private transport, which has led to the growth of traffic congestion, pollution and deterioration of public welfare (as those who can least afford it are made to pay more for an essential service, or give it up). Ridership of BEST buses has fallen by a third, from 42 lakh to 28 lakh or even less, in the space of a few years. If we continue on the present path, Mumbai’s public bus system, once the pride of the city, will soon be irrelevant," he adds.
AMAB has listed three key demands from the BMC and the BEST Management to get BEST on track. These include firstly subsidising and operating BEST as part of the BMC Budget. The BMC being the richest municipality in the country, with an accumulated Rs 69,000 crore of fixed deposits, refuses to fund an essential service of the city. BEST bus transport has always received a financial subsidy from the BEST’s electricity division. It must now be subsidised directly by the owner of the whole undertaking, namely, the BMC which should provide for losses caused by BEST’s unplanned fleet expansion of 2006-10 by writing off its ‘loans’ to BEST, and paying off the other borrowings BEST has had to make in the recent period. This will clear the backlog and help BEST start with a clean slate.
Secondly, BMC should set aside its privatization-cum-fare hike plan and consult with unions, urban affairs experts, transport experts and people’s organizations to formulate a plan for revival of public transport, including BEST. Increasing public transport ridership, for the health of the city, should be taken as the primary criterion on the basis of which to judge performance. AMAB maintains that the BMC must introduce bus priority lanes on all arterial and link roads in the city. This will reduce road space for cars, distribute road space more equitably, and make buses more efficient. The civic body must introduce appropriate parking fees to create an income stream for BEST, and tax private automobiles for the multiple costs they impose on the city in terms of road maintenance, congestion, and pollution. Also, the BMC should scrap the unsustainable, expensive and regressive Coastal Road project and, instead, allocate the Rs 1,500 crore for that project to support and improve the BEST.
Thirdly, every attempt must be made to make BEST affordable and accessible. Mumbai’s bus transport is already too expensive in relation to the incomes of its users which has led to a fall in bus ridership.
To make BEST as a public transport more affordable for students, the price of student passes must be reduced along with an increase in short-distance buses on feeder routes to train stations. Traffic must be regulated at train stations to ensure buses get priority.
AMAB maintains that BMC and BEST stop the discontinuation of routes. The BEST must be run with the spirit and commitment of a public service, and must be operated even on so-called ‘unprofitable’ routes.
During the 2005 Mumbai floods, when the city’s lifeline - the train service came to a screeching halt with the rail lines inundated with the rainwater, the BEST Bus Service - the city’s second lifeline came to the city’s rescue. All the stranded passengers were dropped safely to their respective destinations despite 900 buses being damaged in the bargain and the death of more than a 1,000 persons. BEST plied 109 extra buses and lived up to the reputation of being Mumbai’s second lifeline.
“It was a scary situation and I thought I’d never reach home ” recalls entrepreneur Firoz Merchant. “With the train service called off indefinitely and the roads filled with chest-deep waters, it was a scary situation,” says Firoz who vouches for BEST Bus Service’s performance.
 |
| Entrepreneur Firoz Merchant |
“It was then that the city’s most-complained-about public bus service came to its people’s rescue and in good time. I recall on that fateful July 26th night while commuting by the BEST Bus, the driver didn’t have a mobile and had borrowed mine to call his wife and inform her that he was stuck and would be late,” maintains Feroz who took a good 8 hours to reach home. But, reach he did, unlike thousand others who just didn’t make it…alive!
“Since then, till date, each time it rains a little more than usual, I dump the train and take the bus instead. I know that the trains may stop due to the rains but the BEST Bus won’t,” he says with a distinct sense of pride.
That said, Mumbai hasn’t learned vital lessons from indicators that point to the inevitable. The city seems set to phase out the one and only public short-distance, pan-city transportation mode available. Mumbai’s recent deplorable rise to the top of the list of world’s polluter cities, beating even Delhi, can be attributed to a 400 per cent rise in vehicular traffic in the city since 2001. Mumbai’s priorities are shifting, much on the lines of Delhi, in favour of private transport.
There is a price a nation pays for growth and ‘development.’ The rise in income, accessibility to loans and a desire to ‘own’ a vehicle are triggers. So, the number of privately-owned vehicles is on the rise in Mumbai and it’s only when one is stuck in traffic while commuting to and from work that realises the futility of ‘owning’ a vehicle. With the rise in number of vehicles has increased the congestion and a concurrent slump in the average traffic speed.
Although more than 88 per cent of commuters in Mumbai use public transport, the city having the largest organised bus transport network among major Indian cities, moves to privatise segments of the BEST by introducing ‘wet leasing’ to boost profitability were resisted only by a handful of persons that too affiliated to workers’ organisations.
There are protests, albeit few in numbers, demanding stalling discontinuation of routes, subsidising and operating BEST Buses as a part of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), introduction of bus priority lanes on all arterial and link roads in the city and a reduction of fares for the three shortest distances to ₹ 4, ₹ 6, and ₹ 8.
In Mumbai, the public transport service hasn’t been an enterprise but an essential service and must be treated in a manner such. That said, the state government or the civic authorities that head the cash-rich Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, contrary to popular view, feel otherwise and couldn’t care less either. Instead of being operated by a public entity in the interest of the public and run on public money, the BEST Bus Service is being pitted against private entities. The corporation, while looking to maximise profits even with the BEST Bus Service, fails to recognise that the users of these services are citizens, not consumers.
“You simply cannot be looking to make a profit with the BEST Buses. It is a service for the poorest of poor who cannot afford to own a car or use a private transport service such as Ola or Uber,” says octogenarian and retired government employee Mrs Suman D, who yet avails a bus whenever she has to “travel from Colaba to Babulnath Temple every Monday to offer obeisance to Lord Shiva.” And Suman, finds most of her friends - from all age groups - catching up with all the gossip ranging from politics to the weather - all in the BEST Bus No 123 as it meanders along the Queen’s Necklace before reaching Chowpatty and, finally, the Temple.
“Throughout my life, I’ve never seen a BEST Bus driver lose his cool despite all the road rage and chaos triggered by private vehicles and two-wheelers that break every traffic rule in the book and beyond,” she says. “And, why would I stop using a service that is so affordable and so civil to me unlike private services offered by Kali Peelis and Ubers whose drivers are outright uncouth,” adds Suman.
“It is an ordeal trying to walk on the roads today in Mumbai,” says Suman who suffered a nasty fall last year due to a motorcyclist hitting her while overtaking a parked taxi after a fiery argument with its driver. “Nobody has the time or patience in this city, any longer,” she says. “Each time, I have to walk to a nearby public garden, a few lanes away from my home, I dread stepping out on the road. It’s just a matter of time before someone hits me again,” maintains Suman who has now begun carrying a bright-red umbrella with her each time she steps out to ensure that, while on the road, “she doesn’t fall on someone’s blind spot.”
Today, the BEST Bus Service’s fleet transverse the metropolis and operate in Thane and Navi Mumbai districts too. The second-largest mode of transport in Mumbai after local trains transports about 28 lakh persons every day, down from the 41.9 lakh persons that would commute by BEST buses in 1997-98.
Putting forward its people’s plan for BEST, an Aamchi Mumbai Aamchi BEST movement, has included demands for subsidised public transport, accessibility and affordability, dis-incentivising private transport, and accountability and consultation in the decision-making process. Today, a total of 785 BEST buses are detained in depots every day owing to a staff shortage. Worse still, 112 routes have been suspended and 95 trips cancelled since August 2017, increasing the gap between buses on a route. Also, 230 air-conditioned buses have been ‘retired” since April 2017.
Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, India’s richest municipal body, does not subsidise BEST. It instead furthers loans to BEST, charging it interest thereby crippling it even further. The issues for BEST workers range from reduced wages, lack of bonuses and increasing contractual employment for workers, whose numbers are dwindling.
Today, even as more people use private transport instead of public transport, there could be ingenious ways to subsidise the BEST Bus Service. For one, the money earned from parking could be used to subsidise BEST Buses, offer activists.
This report has been prepared for DraftCraft International’s flagship initiative The Public Space Project in conjunction with its pilot endeavours - The Right To Walk Project, The Gateway of India Project and The Elephanta Island Project to research, analyse and determine the rights of the common man, the pedestrian, the tourist and the rights of the masses availing public transportation in contrast to those privileged few owning private vehicles. The initiative examines laws and policies regarding transport, access to public spaces and privacy guaranteed to all by the State in context of the Right To Equality, Freedoms and the Right to Life.
