BEST to spend Rs 10 lakh to promote its services

BEST will use 2 per cent of its allotted advertisement space for the purpose. The initiatives such as e-purse and reduction of fares were passed in a BEST committee meeting last week.

Explaining the need for the step, BEST General Manager Jagdish Patil said, “This is the first time when BEST will be using its own advertising spaces to promote about its own services. We also plan to tap major sources of media, like the FM radio and electronic media, to create awareness about the merits of using the public transport.”

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Patil also spoke of the plans to use space at bus queue shelters for the advertisements. Praising the move, BEST committee member Ravi Raja said, “This is a welcome move…regular commuters of BEST will be better informed about the advantages of the public transport services.”

Calling it the need of the hour, another BEST committee member Ranjan Chaudhari said the public transport needed to do this to attract more commuters. “More and more commuters are drifting away from public transport to other modes. This will inform them of the initiatives taken by BEST. However, whether it will generate results can only be studied after some time has passed post the advertisements,” Chaudhari added.

BEST also plans to introduce GPS tracking systems and CCTV camera surveillance inside its buses. Through a GPS tracking system, commuters will be informed of the location of the buses using a mobile application.

The daily commuters of the public transport has dwindled to a mere 30 lakh from 42 lakh over the last few years. Patil said measures were being taken to initiate a reverse migration of commuters towards BEST.