Halt privatisation of BEST buses: Workers' union to BMC

The announcement was made in the winter session of state legislature

- Linah Baliga

MUMBAI: The Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking received a boost on Monday, as chief minister Devendra Fadnavis announced that 1,300 electric buses (e-buses) will be added to its fleet soon.

The announcement was made in the first day of the winter session of the state legislature in Nagpur.

Currently, the civic transport body's fleet comprises 2,913 buses, of which 1,900 are on wet-lease contract, while remaining are owned by the Undertaking.

The new additions will be part of the 3,500 e-buses BEST plans to include in its own fleet.

The transport utility has sought a grant of ₹2,800 crore from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in the budget for the financial year ending March 2026 to provide for procuring buses, employee salaries, expansion of power supply network, etc.

Before Fadnavis's announcement, BEST had placed orders for 2,300 buses, which include 2,100 AC single-decker 12-metre-long e-buses and 200 AC double-decker e-buses.

Flak for wet-lease model

The state government's announcement comes at a time when the wet-lease model adopted by BEST has received much flak in view of the recent spate of accidents involving buses driven by drivers from outsourced vendors.

After the accident on December 9 at a busy Kurla thoroughfare that killed eight and injured 41, BEST woke up to the need for stringent Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), one of them being training drivers on automatic transmission vehicles.