Mumbai: After drastically cutting fares in July 2019 , the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking won back lakhs of riders, from the dismal 15 lakh earlier, to 30 lakh passengers daily.
However, the downside to this upswing is that there has been an increase in ticketless travelllers as well.
BEST revealed on Monday, the number of ticketless travellers had risen by 500 every month since the fare cut. The average number of bus riders without tickets used to be 3,046 every month but after the fare revision, this number has gone up to nearly 3,500.
This freeloading has also caused a decline in the revenue from fines. In June 2019, the last month before the fare revision, BEST earned a revenue of Rs 2,77,261 from 3,043 cases.
However, the last audited figures from November 2019, show that the undertaking has only earned Rs 2,09,623 from 3,507 reported cases.
For the offence of ticketless travel, a rider must pay ten times the fare as penalty, according to BEST rules. Accordingly, the offender needs to pay a minimum Rs 50 as penalty, compared to the Rs 80 earlier when the minimum fare was Rs 8.
“There has been an increase in offenders, however, the revenue from fines has gone down because we have reduced the bus fares by a significant margin and we cannot increase the fine amount because this is decided by the regional traffic office commissioner,” said BEST spokesperson Manoj Varade.
“However it's unfortunate that despite charging a meagre Rs 5, many Mumbaikars still continue to travel without tickets. This is a matter of shame because despite BEST being under debt, we are trying our best to give efficient service in every possible way,” Varade said.
However, it has become easier for ticket checkers to nab offenders on mini buses because their doors remain locked throughout the journey and open only at the destination, he observed.
Since September 2019, BEST has pressed mini buses on point-to-point routes, covering distances within 5 kilometres. These buses are conductorless, with passengers buying ticket sfrom the point of origin before boarding,following which the doors are closed until the destination.
Currently, BEST is running 325 buses procured on wet lease and it expects to add 1,000 more buses to its fleet by April.
