Mumbai’s BEST buses have faced several challenges in sticking to the time-table. While this can be mostly blamed on construction and other infrastructure works going on across the city, a new challenge now faces BEST drivers.
BEST buses are now being monitored with the help of a GPS device embedded into each bus with a control room monitoring their speeds and location. BEST officials have said that this move has been put in place to reduce the number of accidents. However, BEST drivers and staff believe that this is only proving to be a hindrance.
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Officials have capped the speed limit to 50 kilometres per hour (kmph) for buses that take passengers from Mumbai to Navi Mumbai using the highway. The central bus control room at Wadala reportedly tracks all the buses on a dashboard. This is part of the newly implemented Integrated Transport Management System. Moreover, drivers that go over the speed limit are reprimanded, officials said.
BEST drivers say that this brings another hurdle on their path with regard to sticking to the schedule, particularly for long-distance routes wherein drivers would try to recover the lost time in the city on the less congested highways.
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BEST committee member Sunil Ganacharya said, “Every bus driver has his own mathematics to run a bus and recover lost time so that he can stick to the timetable. Such restrictions limit that freedom.”
A bus driver speaking to mid-day said that speeds have already fallen to around 20 kmph on most stretches in the suburbs as well as the city. The driver added that they fear action from officials if they breach the 50 kmph mark even marginally.
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