Mumbai: The state and civic administration are doing a great disservice to the people of Mumbai with policies that have crippled BEST Undertaking. We need to see the situation in a larger context.
Why Privatisation Need To Be Ended
King Charles, in his address to British parliament last week, announced the re-nationalisation of British Rail, which had been privatised in the mid-1990s. The move failed badly over the years. Similarly, there is a need to end the privatisation model imposed on BEST. The contract system has failed miserably. This is one reason for the present crisis, as in the UK more subsidies were given to the franchise companies than to BEST. The public ownership of BEST needs to be strengthened. It is still possible to revive BEST in the larger public interest.
The civic administration is exposing itself to ridicule in the international arena, where bus transport is given the pride of place. The red bus is a proud icon of London; its Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan is proud that his father was a bus driver. The Centre must intervene. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs stipulates that there must be 60 buses per one lakh population.
Buses Services In Other Cities Of India
Mumbai and most other cities have far fewer buses. So we have this terrible irony: The roads are full of cars but buses are hardly visible. Other major cities such as Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai have a much better bus service. Delhi and Chennai have made buses free to women, giving a great boost to their morale and employment.
Mangal Prabhat Lodha, Mumbai’s Guardian Minister and billionaire businessman, went out of his way to sing the glories of metro rail in an article in Loksatta in 2022, completely side-lining BEST. The metro rail and MMRDA are in serious financial trouble; metro will take at least another two decades to deliver. Till then what? One of the few bureaucrats to understand the importance of the bus system is Swadhin Kshatriya, former general manager of BEST. When he became chief secretary of the government in 2016, he wrote on BEST Foundation Day (August 7) that the undertaking offered unparalleled service.
This coming August 7, the administration should make amends and announce steps to restore BEST to its former glory. But one cannot be sure. So, the big task before citizens and others now is to intervene in the proposed sale of hundreds of acres of land of BEST bus depots and residential colonies. Any redevelopment must be for public use of that space. If we do not intervene we will lose the land like we lost the textile mill land, something that greatly damaged the city and enriched builders and politicians.
Need To Check The Move Which Is Weakening BEST System
We also need to check the move to weaken the BEST system, because the metro rail lobby sees it as a competition. This lobby wants to reduce the number of buses and the number of commuters. We need to heed the advice of Shashi Verma, the chief technology officer of Transport for London. He points out that there is a huge bus network in London despite the more than century-old underground railway system; in the coming days buses will carry even more commuters than the metro.
That is the potential of the bus system. It saved us during the pandemic by transporting essential workers when the transport system came to a standstill. In Mumbai, it is particularly important because it is far more convenient, affordable and not at all disruptive, unlike the metro. The metro has greatly contributed to BEST’s losses, its work has resulted in reduced bus services. The metro should in all fairness compensate BEST financially or other sectors should do that.
