Mumbai: BEST Faces Ridership Crisis After Hike; Will Ticket Prices Be Reduced Again?

The BEST Undertaking plans to lower bus rates just over a month after raising them by 100%.  The authorities are trying to rationalise the route miles and cut the fares by ₹2–3.  The action was taken after the fictitious hike caused the daily passenger count to decline by over 450,000.  Additionally, the fleet operated by BEST has fallen below 500 buses for the first time. A high-level conference of the BEST authorities was conducted on June 11 to examine potential ways to ameliorate the situation, rationalise fares, and implement a new fare slab.  Senior officials claim that people are switching to shared autorickshaws.  BEST general manager SVR Srinivas confirmed this, stating that he has instructed his staff to lower tariffs for the sake of travellers travelling small distances.

He stated that he was working on rationalising the fares to reduce them to ₹7-8 for non-AC buses travelling 1 to 3 miles.  "The AC buses will also follow this pattern."  The thesis states that a commuter who travels 1-2 km shouldn't have to pay the same fare as someone who travels 5 km.  Additionally, I determined that the shared autorickshaw fares and the current BEST fares need to be made competitive.  We are implementing this technique of lowering fares in order to guarantee that passengers utilising our buses would pay less than those sharing an autorickshaw.  After obtaining the required approvals, the new structure will be put into place.

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For the first time in almost six years, BEST raised the bus fare. The fare hike was last implemented in 2018, after which the BEST bus rates were lowered in 2019. The most recent BEST bus fare increase was predicted to bring in ₹590 crore a year.  Buses operating the first five km currently cost ₹12 for AC buses and ₹10 for non-AC buses. After 20 km, the rate increases by ₹5 per 5 km, and if buses go beyond the boundaries of the Mumbai district, an extra ₹2 is charged as local tax.

According to Srinivas, BEST services needed to be improved and were at a crossroads. To do this, bus routes needed to be redesigned to accommodate the new metro rail tracks.  "BMC commissioner has been instructed by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to treat BEST as the BMC's 'brother' and to provide a 'turnaround package' to BEST by allocating 3% of the BMC budget for the Undertaking," he stated.  In its 2025–2026 budget, the BMC gave the financially troubled BEST just ₹1,000 crore, out of a total expenditure of ₹74,427.41 crore.

According to the BEST general manager, on June 10, he ordered 100 new buses, which will be added to the fleet in a month.  There are currently 2,591 buses in the fleet, 434 of which belong to BEST.  Of the 428 bus routes that currently transport 2.6 million passengers per day, 25% to 30% are long bus routes.  The fleet is being upgraded because CM Fadnavis is committed to turning BEST around, which is crucial for a global metropolis like Mumbai.  By March 2026, BEST hopes to have 3,500 buses in service, and by 2029, 6,000.  The present rate of 20 buses per 100,000 passengers will be lowered as a result, reaching the global average of 60 buses per 100,000.