BEST’S Nov losses pegged at ₹76.70cr

MUMBAI: The Brihanmumbai Electric Transport and Supply (BEST) undertaking has pegged its losses around ₹76.70 crore for the month of November, revealed the transport body’s committee in a meeting held on Tuesday.

BEST had kept a target of running its buses on 1.70 crore km. However, it could operate only on 42.73 lakh km (23.76%).

If BEST fails to meet the 1.70 crore target, it is likely to suffer losses worth around ₹900 crore every year. In November 2018, it had failed to meet its km-target by 22.83% .

The transport body’s committee has attributed the losses to negligent and lackadaisical approach of staff, traffic detention, accidental assault and maintenance costs.

Reacting to the losses, BEST’S general manager Surendrakumar Bagde said, “Yes we are facing staff crunch and it reflected in the losses. To overcome the problem, we have decided to conduct a disciplinary session for our staff, so that they can improve their performance.”

During the meeting, senior committee member Sunil Ganacharya, targeting the administration, said, “This is nothing but the negligence of the part of the administration. It looks like the administration does not care about the transport body. It should take immediate necessary steps to avoid the losses.”

According to the undertaking, Dindoshi, Goregaon and Malwani are the worst-performing depots, which reported kilometre-losses of 34.19%, 31.31% and 31.26% respectively.

The bus depots at Bandra (16.40%),Colaba (16.40%) and Kala Killa (19.31%) were the better performing ones. On an average, however, almost all depots recorded kilometer losses around 25%.