Two years after the BEST’s air-conditioned minibuses hit Mumbai’s roads promising cheaper, cooler and faster rides, they seem to have lost favour with commuters. Poor upkeep has meant that the buses have become heat chambers with malfunctioning ACs. Amid complaints of inconvenient rides, mid-day’s reporters and photographers hopped onto some of these buses and found them to be humid and overcrowded.

Commuters board a bus at Bhandup. Pic/Rajesh Gupta
 
Drivers and conductors sheepishly admitted that commuters were justified in venting their frustration, while BEST said users can always complain to it if they face any issue. The 21-seater minibuses were introduced in September 2019 to provide last-mile connectivity to lakhs of Mumbaikars. The idea was that these buses would find it easy to negotiate congested roads leading to railway stations. Many such buses ply ‘conductor-less’. Here’s what mid-day experienced on Thursday.