On the occasion of ‘BEST Day’ celebrated on July 7, over 20 social organizations and NGOs under the collective banner ‘Aamchi Mumbai Aamchi BEST’ launched a coordinated awareness campaign across various locations in Mumbai. The initiative aimed to highlight the deteriorating state of the city’s public transport lifeline — the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) — and submit a detailed memorandum of demands ( FPJ has the copy ) to BEST bus depot managers, addressed to the General Manager of BEST.
The memorandum includes over a dozen specific demands, most prominently the immediate discontinuation of the wet-lease system, through which BEST hires buses from private contractors, a practice that the citizens' groups say has led to frequent service disruptions, poor maintenance, breakdowns, accidents, and overall decline in commuter satisfaction. The signatories called for the BEST to maintain a fleet of at least 6,250 buses owned and operated by the undertaking itself, as per the established norm of one bus per 2,000 people, while also addressing the drastic drop in carrying capacity — which, according to the groups, has reduced to less than half of what it was in 2010.
In addition to the technical and operational demands, the memorandum calls for an immediate rollback of recent fare hikes, which have reportedly doubled or even tripled the cost of bus travel, placing an unbearable financial burden on lower-income commuters and daily wage workers. It also urges the restoration of long-distance routes that were canceled or curtailed in recent years, and insists on equitable service for all areas of the city, particularly the underprivileged neighborhoods, which activists allege have faced systematic neglect in terms of connectivity and infrastructure like bus stops.
The coalition has raised strong opposition to the ongoing sale of BEST’s land assets to private builders, warning that these lands — critical for bus parking, depots, maintenance, and staff facilities — are being eyed by developers for profit-making ventures, potentially at the cost of public infrastructure. The groups argue that these properties must remain under public control to serve long-term transport needs and ensure dignified working conditions for BEST employees.
Citing sections 126 and 134 of the BMC Act of 1888, the memorandum further demands that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) integrate the BEST budget into its own, thereby guaranteeing stable and sustained financial support for the city’s public bus service. The citizens' representatives questioned why, under the Central Government’s FAME-2 policy, private companies are being given a 60% subsidy to purchase electric buses, but a public undertaking like BEST is not receiving similar assistance to expand and modernize its own fleet.
The signatories also demanded the immediate settlement of legally mandated dues for retired BEST employees, as per the 2019 Memorandum of Understanding, and proposed that the city implement bus-priority lanes or dedicated corridors on arterial roads to reduce waiting times and increase ridership.
The memorandum emphasizes that public bus services offer substantial social and environmental benefits — reducing pollution, supporting mobility for low-income groups, and improving the overall efficiency of urban life — and therefore deserve robust public funding and protection from privatization. The citizens' groups stressed that the performance of a public transport system must be evaluated not just on financial metrics but on accessibility, service quality, coverage, and commuter satisfaction.
Among the organizations endorsing the memorandum were the Democratic Youth Federation of India, Humanist Centre (Dahisar & Borivali), Disha Students’ Organization, Fridays for Future Mumbai, Jan Haq Sangharsh Samiti, CITU, Students’ Federation of India, Lokraj Sanghatana, MASS(Mulbhut Adhikar Sanghrsh Samiti), Purogami Mahila Sanghatana, BEST Nivruth Kamgar Sanghatana, and many others, reflecting a broad-based civil society consensus in favor of keeping Mumbai’s public transport system truly public.
"The campaign signals growing unrest among Mumbaikars over the state of BEST services, and the signatories have indicated that if their demands continue to be ignored, further public mobilizations and legal action may follow in the coming months" said an active member of Aamachi Mumbai Aamchi BEST'.
