Over the last few years, Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) has suffered financial loss worth ₹1,800 Cr. On the occasion of ‘BEST day’, which is celebrated on August 7, a press conference was organised at Colaba’s BEST Bhavan where the BEST officials spoke about BEST's financial woes.
While addressing the press conference, the BEST officials informed that currently, BEST has a fleet of 3,337 buses that includes double-decker, midi, electric-midi, and AC. Out of these, 90 per cent buses run on streets on a daily basis yet have financial woes. They believe that growing traffic is the major reason for the loss as the number of vehicles have increased on the streets, due to which BEST is not able to run their buses as per their speed limit, wait in traffic for a longer period of time. All this leads to fuel wastage, said BEST officials.
The officials added that due to Ola and Uber, BEST is witnessing a decline in the number of commuters. They further added that out of 10 bus services, three services are always cancelled. Because of this, the BEST suffers financial loss worth ₹55 lakh.