Activists join hands to save loss-making BEST undertaking

Transport activists today joined hands to "save" the Brihanmumbai Electrical Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking which is in red due to heavy losses.

Saeed Mirza, national award winning film director, has released a "People's Plan" to save the BEST undertaking.

The activists, including Mirza, Vidyadhar Date, Ashok Datar, Sudhir Badama, A V Shenoy, Hussain Indoriwala and S Balakrishnan, said the government and politicians have failed to save the BEST undertaking.

Balakrishnan demanded that such undertakings be given subsidies.

The 112-year-old BEST administration is now looking at the BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) to bail them out financially.

The BEST is struggling to pay salaries to its over 40,500 staffers and had borrowed from banks to make the payments.

The transport undertaking operates on 483 routes in the metropolis and adjoining Thane and Navi Mumbai.

It is incurring an estimated Rs 2 crore loss per day.

Its fleet of 3,337 buses, including 120 double-deckers, has failed to recover even the cost of operation.

BEST buses once used to ferry around 45 lakh passengers daily, but they now cater to only 29 lakh passengers.