MUMBAI: Your bus ride in the city will be costlier from mid-week. Officials from
Mumbai Metropolitan Region Transport Authority (
MMRTA) on Sunday confirmed that they will clear the proposal for BEST fare hike on April 11. Once they give the nod, the hikes could come into effect from April 12.
The fare hike will be in range of Re 1 to Rs 12 for distances over 4km. This could put a burden on lakhs of daily commuters who depend on the red buses for travel. There will, however, be no hike for shorter distances (0-4 km). Your air-conditioned (AC) bus fare will also go up by minimum Rs 5, specially for the AC hybrid electric buses launched recently to cater to office-goers from Borivli, Thane, Mulund and Kharghar to Bandra- Kurla complex daily. The AC fares on the circular routes within BKC will also go up, with the minimum AC fare increasing from Rs 15 to Rs 20. Officials said that the hike will also result in increase in monthly bus pass rates while students will have to bear more costs for season passes from the new academic year. BEST officials said that the student monthly bus pass has been hiked by Rs 50.
There will also be a hike in daily bus pass from Rs 70 to Rs 90. For the separate bus passes (island city and suburbs), the hike will be Rs 10. Apart from a hike, BEST will also embark upon a few turnaround measures, which include rationalization of bus routes, scrapping of routes which have less than 40% occupancy, rationalization of fleet and cost-cutting measures such as curtailing special allowances to staffers, the officials said. Leader of the opposition in BMC, Ravi
Raja, has opposed the fare revision, saying it was unwarranted. He alleged that when the fare hike proposal got a nod from the civic House, he was not taken into confidence. BEST operates 500 routes and ferries nearly 30 lakh commuters daily in Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai collectively.
The BEST budget for 2018-19 showed a deficit of Rs 880 crore, which after implementing reforms, will bring down the deficit to Rs 337 crore. The BEST has asked the BMC to give a grant of Rs 377 crore in order to show a surplus budget of Rs 1 lakh for the next fiscal year. The budget is yet to be cleared by the civic House. A BEST committee member said that the administration should have first cut down costs of operations and reduced staff allowances before putting the burden of fare hike on commuters. The BEST had earlier raised fares in 2015.
