Aamchi Mumbai Aamchi BEST and 22 other Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) on Thursday expressed dissatisfaction against the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport’s (BEST) plans of wet-lease and privatisation of the buses and protested the move.

The BEST fleet currently has 2594 buses, with only 437 owned by BEST and the remaining 2157 buses operating under wet-lease agreements with private contractors. To oppose the “systematic destruction” of what was once an exemplary institution of Mumbai, the civil society organisations staged a protest outside 27 depots across the city on the occasion of the BEST’s 78th Foundation Day and submitted demands to depot managers.

“For many years, municipal commissioners and BEST general managers have made announcements of increasing bus fleet, but the number of buses have come down to 2594 with only 437 BEST-owned buses. Despite being damaging in every respect (service quality, safety, reliability and financial sustainability) the authorities have persisted with wet-leasing,” a protestor said.