Bus strike continues on 3rd day, MSRTC provides helping hand in running operations

Due to the BEST’s wet lease contract workers strike, nearly 1,375 buses remained off the roads on Friday, leading to services being affected from 20 depots, including Back Bay, Colaba, Mumbai Central, Worli, Pratiksha Nagar, Arnik, Dharavi, Deonar, Shivaji Nagar, Ghatkopar, Mulund, Majas, Santacruz, Oshiwara, Malvani, Gorai and Magathane.

Due to the strike, commuters were largely inconvenienced, including office workers and students among others. College student Ashwini Karande said that because of the strike, she was facing great difficulty and had to take an auto to reach the station, paying four times the price of bus ticket fare.

On Friday, the BEST issued a statement saying that the strike was called by the workers of private contractors and BEST cannot take any decision with regards to their salary hike and other demands.

The BEST has directed its wet lease contractors to resolve the issue with its workers immediately. BEST has a total of 3,124 buses; 1,487 of its own while the remaining 1,637 are from wet lease contractors. Second only to local trains, BEST buses ferry about 33 lakh people daily.

Former opposition leader in BMC and BEST Ex panel member, Ravi Raja criticised the transport undertaking on twitter. He tweeted, “The strike of BEST lease drivers has intensified causing a lot of trouble to Mumbaikars. How come BEST administration is allowing the contractors to twist the arms of administration? Time has come to take Police action against the contractors.”