BMC budget: For FY23, BEST gets Rs 800 crore fuel

BEST buses at Goregaon. File pic

Presenting the civic Budget on Thursday, the BMC allocated a fund of Rs 800 crore to the BEST Undertaking, which is struggling financially, for the upcoming financial year. The Undertaking had sought Rs 6,650 crore from the civic body for its overall revival and to keep its transport services running.

Reading out from the budget papers, civic commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal said, "Considering the precarious financial condition of BEST, the BMC has been continuously assisting the Undertaking over the past few years for infrastructural development and purchase of capital equipment, loan repayment, day-to-day expenditure etc., subject to the implementation of Financial Revival Plan. Considering the importance of public transportation, a provision of Rs 800 crore is proposed in the Budget Estimate 2022-23 for assisting the Undertaking, so as to help them to improve their functioning."

In its annual budget for 2022-23 presented in January, the BEST reported a deficit of Rs 2,236.48 crore, of which Rs 2,110.47 crore was from transport. The financial help from the BMC to its transport wing has been increasing since the past few years. It helped the BEST with Rs 151.35 crore over four financial years, from 2015 to 2019. Thereafter, it has allotted Rs 4,300 crore - half of it in 2019-20, Rs 750 crore in the current financial year, as well as Rs 406 crore loan for pending gratuity payment to 3,649 employees. A senior BMC official said the BEST may get aid from the Centre as well as the state government for the electric fleet and would not need the complete funding from the BMC. The BEST undertaking plans to procure 2,100 electric buses and has decided to have a fully electric fleet by 2027.