The financially struggling BEST Bus administration has requested Rs. 1400 crores from the Mumbai Municipal Corporation. A recent meeting took place between Municipal Corporation and BEST officials regarding this matter. It is anticipated that the debt burden on BEST will ultimately impact the residents of Mumbai, potentially leading to an increase in Best Bus ticket prices. The current outstanding loan of 'BEST' stands at close to 6 thousand crores, posing a significant challenge for the administration to manage. A senior BEST official mentioned that the Mumbai Municipal Corporation had pledged support in the previous budget, but additional assistance of Rs. 1400 crores is now being sought. In the budget for 2024-25, Manpan allocated 800 crores to the BEST project, enabling the purchase of spare parts, infrastructure improvements, debt repayment, and salary disbursements.
BEST initiative has been advised to collect funds by using other options instead of asking for help from Municipal Corporation every time. An official said that Mumbai City Council has helped the BEST initiative before. But now the municipality says that the BEST initiative should also consider other options. The officer said that now the only option left is to increase the ticket price and the municipality also said that the fare increase should be considered. Presently, ticket price in Mumbai is Rs.6 for AC bus and Rs.5 for normal bus. The same ticket prices have been applicable for the last five years. It has not changed. But now the ticket price is likely to increase by 2 to 3 rupees. In the month of March itself, the BEST initiative had given an indication in this regard. Daily, weekly and monthly passes were also increased. The price of unlimited pass has also been increased from Rs 750 to Rs 900.
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BEST has decided to make some changes in its 26 depots to raise funds. The help of International Finance Corporation (IFC) is being taken for this. BEST intends to raise funds using the depot in a commercial manner. The initiative focuses on modernizing the depot and providing better facilities there. Presently Dindoshi, Wadala and Deonar depots have been selected for this.
Shashank Rao of BEST Workers' Union said that BEST now has less number of self-owned buses than leased buses. The BEST initiative is expected to own 3337 buses. But currently there are only 3050 cars in total. People don't get buses during rush hours. Passengers are facing problems due to power cut and cable fault. BEST's financial condition has not been good. Funds have to be collected to pay the salaries of the employees. In such a case, the only solution is to accommodate the BEST initiative in the Mumbai Municipal Corporation.