Mumbai: Strike over but many employees of private operators of BEST still to rejoin; public transporter claims 97.5% buses on roads

Mumbai: A day after those representing employees of private operators of BEST announced that their weeklong strike had been called off, many contractual staffers were yet to rejoin on Wednesday morning.

Sunil Vaidya, a spokesperson of the BEST undertaking, said that about 85 per cent of their wet-leased buses were being run with the drivers of private bus operators.

At 10 am, Vaidya said, the public transporter operated 97.5 per cent of the 3,040 buses in its fleet including the wet-leased ones and BEST-owned buses.

While Vaidya claimed that the employees of the private bus operators have rejoined at all bus depots, he did not specify their exact numbers.

“Soon, 100 per cent of the buses are expected to be operated by the employees of private bus operators,” he said.

The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking, which provides public bus services in Mumbai and neighbouring areas, has hired more than 1,600 buses from some contractors on a wet lease model, under which the vehicle ownership, maintenance, fuel and driver costs are the responsibility of the private operator.

The employees, including drivers, of the private bus operators had been agitating over demands, including salary hikes and pay parity with BEST employees. During the strike, BEST ran more than 600 wet-leased buses using its own drivers.

On Tuesday afternoon, those representing the agitating contractual employees announced that their strike, which started on August 2, had been called off after a meeting with Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Monday night.

In a press statement issued later, they also claimed that Shinde had accepted their demands, including salary hikes, and promised to fulfil them.

Vikas Kharmale, a coordinator of one of the groups of employees of private bus operators, told PTI that in the absence of a written assurance from the government, many staffers are reluctant to resume duty.

According to BEST spokesperson Vaidya, the undertaking also operated 212 buses of the state-owned Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) for the convenience of the commuters.

MSRTC has been operating its 100 to 225 buses daily on various routes of BEST, on request of the municipal transport body after the employees of private bus operators intensified their strike.

Amid the strike last week, the state government permitted all public service vehicles including taxis, rickshaws, and school buses, to carry out stage carriage operations. It means they could pick and drop passengers multiple times.

BEST ferries more than 30 lakh commuters on its buses in Mumbai and neighbouring Thane, Navi Mumbai and Mira-Bhayander cities with its fleet of more than 3,100 buses, of which it owns less than 1,400 buses.

Lakhs of bus users had a harrowing time during the strike. They faced long serpentine queues at depots and bus stops and braved overcrowding on buses.