BEST urges toll waiver for city buses to ease financial stress

While MSRTC has received a toll waiver, BEST is yet to do so. FILE PIC

The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply & Transport (BEST) Undertaking wants a toll waiver on buses crossing Mumbai limits. BEST Chairperson Trushna Vishwasrao has written to Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde - who also holds the Urban Development, Housing, and Public Works portfolios - about the mounting financial stress on the public transport undertaking due to tolls. The demand comes at a time when BEST continues to grapple with financial constraints even as it expands services across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.

What BEST says…

>> Daily services are being operated on 40 routes connecting Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, and Mira-Bhayandar using 382 buses
>> Waiver will make tickets cheaper and attract more passengers to services

A BEST ticket with added toll charge, PIC/NIMESH DAVE

Reasons BEST wants waiver...

>> The undertaking functions as a public service provider on a no-profit-no-loss basis
>> It is currently running in deficit
>> Toll charges are putting pressure, adding to financial stress
>> Toll fees have been revoked for private cars, so why are public transport buses being charged?

Bureaucrat Speak

Trushna Vishwasrao, BEST chairperson

A BEST official
The BEST would earlier charge '1 as toll from commuters. After the bus fare was slashed to '5 by adding all the concessions in 2019, the toll was waived as part of the concessions. But since all the concessions were withdrawn in 2025, the toll waiver, too, has gone'

A BEST official
‘We have already sent a proposal to the government seeking a waiver. Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) has got a waiver, but not BEST buses. We are in constant touch with the state government regarding the matter and hope to get a waiver soon'