It is learnt that wet leasing model of bus procurement has led Undertaking to introduce smaller AC-buses, causing these issues
A commuter says instead of the big buses on some routes with their frequency decided as per the crowd and demand, now there are smaller wet-leased buses, and their frequency is also low. Pic/Satej Shinde
Conductor-less buses are leading to crowds at bus stops, as all these new buses do not halt at mid-route stops. Trade unions and BEST committee members have alleged that the buses are also leading to loss of revenue as there is no monitoring and checking of passengers.
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“The BEST Undertaking has started 22-seater buses instead of the regular 49-seater ones on most of the routes. This has already halved the passenger intake. In addition to this, the Undertaking has now removed conductors from many of these buses. The bus conductor is placed at the starting stop and the bus, which does not halt at middle bus stops, is dispatched with passengers. Even if the bus stops at a mid-route bus stop, there is no one to issue a ticket. This is all leading to complications and buses are missing crucial passenger traffic, causing losses in addition to commuter inconvenience,” a trade union leader said.
Commuters upset
“Take the example of bus routes at Goregaon east. There are popular local bus routes like 347, 349, 447, 451, 452 and 646. In earlier days, proper big buses used to run on these routes with their frequency decided as per the crowd and demand. Now, there are smaller wet-leased buses, and their frequency is also low, plus there is a conductor only at the starting stop,” a commuter, Ravi Kiran said.
The wet leasing model of bus procurement has led the Undertaking to introduce smaller AC-buses, leading to these issues. A BEST committee member said that the Undertaking should ensure that it does not face any losses because of such policies. “Every single commuter taking the BEST bus brings revenue and with such a precarious financial condition, it would be unfair for the Undertaking to indulge in such negligence,” he said.
‘Aware of problem’
BEST officials countered that they are aware of the problem and trying to balance out things and have increased the frequency of buses, though sometimes the gap between buses is more or less due to local issues like traffic jams and other such delays.
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