Not at its best

“A lot of good things were done,but the lack of planning and implementation of projects and schemes in a hurry was where things went wrong,” said Sunil Ganacharya,a BEST committee member.

An ailing fleet

Over the last five years,the condition of the BEST’s fleet of 4,699 buses worsened as the utility’s fleet increased with the purchase of 1,000 buses under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). Although the fleet expanded,the amount of parking space,funds,manpower and equipment for maintenance remained constant straining the utility’s inadequate resources. As a result,BEST buses have started breaking down on the roads more often.

“We cannot reject any government proposal and so had to buy these 1,000 buses under JNNURM,” Sunil Shinde,chairman of the BEST committee,said. The BEST also added 270 new air-conditioned King Long buses to its fleet,but soon started facing problems. After incidents such as frequent breakdowns,minor fires and engine failures,the BEST decided not to buy any more King Longs.

BEST in the red

The utility has been running a loss since five years and has accumulated losses of about Rs 2,500 crore. The transport division is estimated to record a deficit of Rs 521.66 crore in the current financial year ending March 2012,while the electric supply division is expected to clock a deficit of Rs 262.37 crore.

The ruling Shiv Sena-BJP takes pride in the fact that even as the financial crisis deepened,bus fares were hiked only once in September 2010. Recently,the management had suggested another hike to pare its losses in the transport division,but committee members across parties shied away from the proposal.

“Insufficient staff and budget constraints are our major problems. We don’t get any aid from the government and the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission also never shows sympathy when it looks at BEST,” Shinde said. Opposition members on the BEST committee have been pressing for a bailout from the BMC,while the ruling party members insist help should come from the state government.

Power supply: a shade better

Barring a fire at the BEST’s Backbay substation that forced parts of south Mumbai into darkness for more than 30 hours,the performance of the utility’s electric supply division has been stable. The BEST stepped up its vigilance against power thefts with the number of cases detected rising from 658 in 2006-07 to 2,140 in 2010-11.

The BEST also lowered its distribution losses to 8 per cent from 13 per cent five years back.

If voted back to power,the Shiv Sena-BJP plans to make way for dedicated bus lanes on roads,increase Fort Feri-like services in commercial areas,increase receiving stations,electronic meters and undertake digitization of underground electric cables,Shinde said.