Now that the situation is calming down and Covid restrictions are being withdrawn, the BEST unions are going for a massive one day protest on March 2. This is over the issue of the bus depots of Pratiksha Nagar and Santacruz being utilized by wet-lease bus operators and that the total owned bus fleet is not catered to.
The employees and workers union of Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) have threatened a protest at bus depots on March 2. According to Shashank Sharad Rao, the union leader of BEST Sanyukt Kaamgar Kruti Samiti said that they are protesting against the privatization of BEST owned land at bus depots for which we will gather at Wadala depot.
This will probably be the first time that the BEST unions are going to protest after the two years long Covid-19 lockdown.
The BEST workers claim that the administration is not bothered about their welfare. The unions claim that private wet-lease bus operators are allegedly utilizing the land at Pratiksha Nagar bus depot. And that Santazruz depot is next in line. They have also pasted posters at different bus depots about the same.
“Our employees are being asked to repair and maintain wet-lease buses parked at these bus depots. There is no place for our owned buses at these bus depots. The fleet size of owned buses has come down to 1,900 buses or so despite the administration agreeing to maintain the fleet at 3,337 buses,” said Shashank Sharad Rao.
BEST Spokesperson Manoj Varade didn’t respond to the query sent over message over this protest announced by the BEST unions.
More wet-lease buses are in the pipeline, both Single and Double Decker buses. The BEST last week called fresh tenders for procuring 1400-odd Single Decker AC electric buses after withdrawing the proposal to procure 1200 AC e-buses because ‘the Centre had not given single paise subsidy for the project’. They are apparently going to procure these e-buses under Maharashtra Clean Air Project.
Meanwhile, on February 28, the BEST Undertaking announced that one lakh ‘happy travellers’ are now using the BEST Chalo Card to pay for their bus travel in Mumbai. This is apart from the 5.50-lakh odd downloads of their Chalo App.
