Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) will soon have 80 more electric buses, Union Minister of Heavy Industries Anant Geete said at the launch of 25 hybrid-electric buses on Friday.
“We have to move towards electric mobility and go from low emissions to no emissions,” Mr. Geete said. The buses were inaugurated by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis who said efforts were underway to introduce electric public transport across Maharashtra.
“A lot of people drive to BKC in their cars which leads to congestion and no matter how many roads we build, the only solution to reducing pollution is having a good public transport system. These buses are built for premium customers and comes with a lot of features that will appeal to car owners, who will be encouraged to use this service,” Mr. Fadnavis said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Protests by workers
Meanwhile, BEST workers’ unions held protests outside all bus depots in the city today after they found their wages short by ₹500 on Thursday. This follows a decision by the management to recover the ₹5,500 Diwali bonus, paid to workers last year, in monthly instalments. “It is unacceptable that the bonus be taken back, despite the BEST committee deciding to approve the reforms so that our bonus would not be cut,” Jaganarayan Kahar, general secretary of the BEST Kamgar Sanghatana said. The strike was called by all major BEST unions, barring BEST Kamgar Sena, which did not participate in the protest.
The services however, remained unaffected as only off-duty workers took part in the protests. The protests were also against late payment of salaries and the move to not provide physical payslips to workers. BEST committee member, Sunil Ganacharya had asked for an adjournment of the committee meeting on March 13, to protest the late payment of salaries. “We will be taking the matter up in the next committee meeting,” he said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Sources said that the move is because the BEST has not implemented all the reforms demanded by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in order to get financial assistance. The BMC has asked the bus service provider to implement a series of reforms, which include route cancellations, fare hike and the hiring buses on contract through wet-leasing. The latter was approved by the committee last month, prompting the unions to declare a strike. The strike was called off after an industrial court ordered a stay on the decision. BEST unions are also planning a morcha, which union leaders said they will be announcing soon.