Mumbai : Breaking free of the conservative norm of tickets being issued by a conductor on board the bus, BEST is all set to operate conductor-less buses on four routes. The commuters boarding these buses will be expected to purchase the tickets at the bus stop itself.
In a bid to make the idea work, BEST management has written to the state government requesting them to exempt BEST for Motor Vehicle Act which makes it mandatory for the undertaking to have a conductor onboard a trip. Speaking about the proposal, General Manager of BEST, Jagdish Patil said, “We have written to the state government about it and if it gets approved we will be soon start such facility on four small routes on an experimental bases.”
The conductor-less bus services will first operate on shorter routes like Special No. 1 (CST to NCPA), Special No. 2 (CST Station to World Trade), Special 8 and 9 (Churchgate back to Churchgate). There will be BEST staff deployed at the originating bus stops where the commuters will be expected to purchase the tickets before boarding the bus.
These buses will ply on shorter routes which will be running from point to point without halting in-between. “There are several commuters who even at present purchase the tickets while standing in the queue to board these buses. All we need to do it get permission from the state government to discontinue the conductors onboard a bus,” added Patil.
Officials from BEST will also be talking to the unions about the plan and convince them of the idea. When asked if the move is to reduce the staff, Patil said, ‘There will not be any retrenchment. The extra staff which will be available initiating conductor-less bus services will be deployed on other routes.”
