Mumbai: Despite Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) having reduced its fare for public transport BEST buses to attract Mumbaikars, a recent reply from BEST to an RTI application by Waatavaran, an environmental organisation, has revealed the number of students holding BEST passes fell by more than half over the past two years.
About 1.25 lakh people commute by BEST buses in the city. The city has total 3,198 BEST buses.
The BEST’s reply to the RTI states in September 2017, 84,297 bus passes were issued to school students. However, in September 2018, the number of students who were issued bus passes fell sharply to 72,968, that is 11,329 students didn’t opt for the bus pass.
By September 2019, the number of bus pass holders went down further to 34,775. Currently, only 49,522 students have been issued BEST bus passes.
Waatavaran attributed the fall in numbers to increasing traffic congestion in the city, as well as rising levels of pollution. “There is more than a 50 per cent drop in the number of students holding BEST bus passes between September 2017 and September 2019.
This is because of issues related to longer commute time owing to traffic congestion, as well as higher pollution levels. This problem has persisted despite a reduction in fares implemented by BEST in June last year,” said Bhagwan Kesbhat, founder Waatavaran.
