Mumbai: ‘No self-owned buses at Mulund depot’

The BMC’s budget has proposed to give the BEST Rs 800 crore as a grant. File Pic/Satej Shinde

Mulund has become the first bus depot devoid of self-owned buses, trade unions have alleged terming it a breach of agreement. Unions have now threatened mass protest, seeking restoration of buses to the depot. This means the BEST's own fleet from Mulund depot has been decreasing to such an extent that soon there will not be any buses left and that the fleet of buses leased and operated by private owners and their staff will be completely taking over the depot.

"In a memorandum of understanding signed by the trade union and the then-municipal commissioner in 2019, the undertaking was expected to maintain a fleet of 3,337 self-owned buses. We were given assurances, but the fleet has been going down and down and this is now the limit," Shashank Sharad Rao, general secretary of BEST Transport Workers' Union said. "The self-owned bus fleet of the undertaking has come down to 1,100 buses, despite legally binding on the undertaking to maintain 3,337 buses, which is shocking," he added.

BEST officials said that they were working on procuring more buses and the BMC had allocated money to it in the budget. The BMC's budget has this year proposed to give the undertaking Rs 800 crore as a grant, and another Rs 128.65 crore towards purchasing 2,000 electric buses. Rao said that they were planning an aggressive protest and that the BEST would be responsible for its consequences if it did not roll back the decision to decrease the self-owned fleet like this.

2019
Year MOU was signed