Since August 1905, when it first officially became an electricity supplier, the BEST came to be a loss-making, loan-burdened power distributor catering to some 10 lakh consumers in the island city over the course of a century, .
But on Thursday, the Supreme Court allowed Tata Power to lay cables in BEST’s turf (Colaba-Sion/Mahim), thus ending its monopoly and bringing relief to south Mumbaikars, who now have an option to choose their power supplier.

Over the years, many of these customers had no choice but to complain about gaps in service at a rickety-looking office, and pray that the officials would look into their problems.