Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) on Thursday rolled out more conductor-less bus services in various parts of suburban Mumbai.
The process of running conductor-less buses was a pilot project launched by BEST for optimum use of manpower.
The cash-strapped BEST has frozen all recruitment procedures, however there has been an increase of more than 200 buses on its fleet in the last three months.
The conductors are deployed on the origin and destination bus stops, the commuters need to buy tickets before boarding from the conductors present at the bus stops.
Earlier, conductor-less point-to-point bus services were pressed on commercial areas of southern-Mumbai, Thursday onwards similar services were pressed on 35 routes of suburban Mumbai including Goregaon, Kandivli, Mulund, Ville Parle and Santa Cruz.
Meanwhile this step has received a flack from the BEST union as the members of the union state this is a stepping stone to more job cuts.
“What the management has initiated is a drill, this only signifies there will be further job cuts in the future,” stated Ganesh Yadav, member of BEST union Kamgar Sena.
Yadav stated if a single conductor lose his job, then the union will agitate against the union. “The management has paying the private contractors on time but aren’t paying the employees. If a single conductor lose his job, then the management will have to answer the union,” added Yadav.
Meanwhile BEST management states in future more buses without conductors will be pressed into service in order to put proper usage to manpower.
“We are going through financial crisis, hence we need to use our manpower very smartly,” said the officer.
He informed generally in a single route an average are buses pressed which requires 5 conductors. However by running buses conductorless the requirement of conductors are halved as the conductors operate only on bus stops on shift basis.
“The management has assured there will be no job cuts, this project is initiated only for human resource management,” added the officer.
