Commuter takes to Twitter alleging people travelled for free on route 138 in absence of conductors at start of trip
BEST buses are seen outside Dadar station. File pic
Mumbaikars are travelling for free in the conductor-less BEST buses, a commuter has alleged in a social media post uploaded on Sunday. The Undertaking said it would look into his complaint and fix the issue.
According to the Twitter user, who goes by the username Saiftisfied, he boarded bus route no. 138 at Churchgate for Cuffe Parade on Saturday night. “There was no conductor at the bus stop. No conductor inside the bus. No conductor at the next 10 stops [through which] the bus passed,” said
the commuter.
“On asking the driver about the ticket, he said, “Ab kya kar sakte hai, mera kaam nahi hai aur meri galti nahi hai. Sab bina ticket jaa rahe hai. Aap bhi utar jaao. (What can we do, it’s neither my job nor my fault. Everyone is travelling without a ticket. You also get down if you have reached your destination).”
He wrote, “I then went to Backbay depot to get a ticket and see what the matter was. There were no conductors even there. It was 10.16 pm when I stepped out of MH 01 DR 0934 at Backbay Depot. All offices were closed. The security staff made it sound like an everyday thing. There were at least 25 people in that bus, travelling for free. The BEST Undertaking is suffering a R2,000-crore loss is what I have heard. There is urgent need to fix the leakages [sic].”
BEST officials said they had notified the concerned Backbay Bus Depot to look into the feedback.
Another commuter H R Marathe said, “City buses need conductors, as they have to stop after almost every kilometre. There is no check without a conductor and public can travel for free because of that.”
Sources said the conductor-less buses were started in October 2019 on a few select routes and later launched on other routes as well. Passengers have to buy tickets at the originating stops, they added. The service was initially started to manage effective utilisation of manpower, and on the routes that do not have stops midway.
A BEST committee member said the Undertaking should ensure that it does not face any losses because of such policies. “Every single commuter taking the BEST bus brings revenue and with such precarious financial condition, it would be unfair for the Undertaking to indulge in such negligence,” he added.
BEST General Manager Lokesh Chandra said, “We are working on this and will address this issue very soon. We are going to launch a mobile app for digital ticketing and smart cards by this year-end. Moreover, the automated fare collection system will be National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) compliant. Once all this is done, we won’t have such complaints again.”
Tweet talk
@saiftisfied: ‘I was travelling from Churchgate to Cuffe Parade on Saturday night. There was no conductor at the bus stop. No conductor inside the bus. No conductor at the next 10 stops [through which] the bus passed’
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