A Report On

Information from internet about day to day working of

BEST 

Group Members

Name Roll No.

Omkar Katurde 20221031
Pashmin Kaur Bhogal 20221032
Prachi Khairnar 20221033
Pradeep Gupta 20221034
Prakash Sharma 20221035
Pranav Shinkar 20221036

Under The Guidance of

Prof. Zubin Sethna

Durgadevi Saraf Institute of Management Studies

Malad West, Mumbai

2022-2023
 ‘Day to Day Working of BEST’

Introduction
The Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport Undertaking (BEST) is a civic
transport and electricity provider public body based in Mumbai, Maharashtra,
India. It was originally set up in 1873 as a tramway company called "Bombay
Tramway Company Limited". The company set up a captive thermal power
station at the Wadi bunder in November 1905 to generate electricity for its trams
and positioned it to also supply electricity to the city and re-branded itself to
"Bombay Electric Supply & Tramways (BEST)" Company. In 1926, BEST also
became an operator of motor buses. In 1947, the BEST became an undertaking of
the Municipal Corporation and rebranded itself to "Bombay Electric Supply &
Transport (BEST)". In 1995 the organization was renamed to "Brihanmumbai
Electric Supply & Transport (BEST)" alongside Mumbai. It now operates as an
autonomous body under the Municipal Corporation.
BEST operates one of India's largest fleets of buses. The bus transport service
covers the entire city and also extends its operations outside city limits into
neighboring urban areas. In addition to buses, it also operates a ferry service in
the northern reaches of the city. The electricity division of the organization is also
one of the few electricity departments in India to garner an annual gross profit.
BEST uses primarily CNG and a handful of conventional diesel buses. As of
January 2021, the BEST has a fleet of approximately 3800 buses. The fleet
comprises 200 single-decker diesel buses, 2400 CNG buses, 25 AC hybrid buses,
1000 AC Mini & Midi buses, 100 electric ac & non ac buses and 120 double-decker
buses. Please note due to 15-year-old scrap policy and continuous new purchases
of buses the numbers are varying. The diesel buses are being scrapped and being
replaced by new CNG and electric buses. BEST also have goods carrier buses,
break-down vans, blue colored sightseeing and party buses, tree cutting double
decker buses and driving school buses which are used to train drivers. All buses
are tagged with a route number and its corresponding destination.

Daily working system in BEST

Bus Routes:
BEST bus routes are spread citywide and to neighboring cities. BEST operates
inter-city services to three areas beyond the municipal limits of Mumbai City; i.e.,
into the limits of the bordering corporations of Navi Mumbai, Thane, and Mira-
Bhayandar. BEST supplements suburban rails, metro rail and monorail in the
Mumbai region. It is for this reason that BEST always gives priority for feeder
routes over other routes. BEST uses CNG, electric and diesel-powered buses for its
operation. BEST introduced Air-conditioned buses in 1998.
The majority of BEST buses consist of ordinary routes. Limited bus services that
skip minor stops are used on long routes, high-capacity routes, and routes that
provide connectivity beyond Mumbai city. The buses have "LTD" appended to the
route number. "C" routes are ultra-long routes. 5xx LTD numbered buses connect
Navi Mumbai with Mumbai. Some buses like A-504, 504 LTD, and C 53 Exp plies
till Navi Mumbai's Raigad district, also called as South Navi Mumbai, thereby
connecting the nodes of Kharghar and Kalamboli with Mumbai. Buses numbered
4xx mostly like 496 LTD and 497 LTD serve Mulund and Thane and provide the
connection to greater Mumbai and buses numbered 6xx LTD and 7xx LTD
serves Mira-Bhayander region like 706 LTD and 720 LTD. Buses number 3xx most
likely cater to eastern suburbs.
As of 2021, the BEST runs approximately 3,800 buses ferrying 5 million
passengers over 443 routes, and has a workforce strength of 38,000, which
includes 22,000 bus drivers and conductors. BEST plans to induct more AC & Non-
AC buses on wet lease and increase total fleet to 6,000 buses by 2021.
Besides buses, BEST operates a ferry service since 1981 in northern Mumbai,
across the Manori Creek. The barges operate at regular intervals across the
shallow creek linking Manori to Marve.
The BEST bus service suffered two bombings on 6 December 2002 and 28 July
2003 killing six people. In August 2006, BEST introduced payphone system and
CCTVs on its buses as a response to terror attacks on the city's buses and trains.

Human resourcing:
BEST employed employees and workers according to their respective positions. It
provides academic training to their employees to interact with public. Each depot
has approximately near 350 drivers and conductors. For every conductor and
driver duty timing changes according to their choices and scheduling need or vice-
a-versa after every four month. If any absentees of conductor or driver in depot,
there also have spare conductors and drivers to employ on work. Every
employees get their salary on 15th date of month.
Scheduling of buses:
Scheduling of buses in transportation is very much important to know public or
passengers about timing of buses. The buses of BEST run according to respective
scheduling. On every day in Mumbai, buses start from 5am in the morning and
run till 11.59 pm (approx.)
On public holiday, the number of buses run on road is 50% compare to regular.

Daily income:
A senior transport division official said BEST earned around Rs. 2.75 crores
(approx.) daily through tickets. The approx. income of each depot is around 6 to 8
lakh rupees. Eg. The daily income of ‘Goregaon depot’ and ‘Malvani depot’ are
approximately 7 lakhs and 10 to 15 lakhs respectively.

Fueling to buses:
In every depot, there is diesel fueling facility available only for BEST buses.

Repairing facility:
Each depot contains garage facility to repair the buses within depot on daily basis.
If any urgent situation happen like bus stop working on road, in that case another
bus is provide by depot to transport the passengers on the particular route and
that bus repair by BEST’s mechanic staff within 30 to 45 minutes.

Cleaning facility:
The BEST has cleaning staff in every depot to clean buses and depot area. The
staff ensures that the buses are clean for the passengers.
Contract company payment:
The BEST contracted buses (non-ac, ac, electric) of private companies like Hansa,
Mateshwari, DAGA, SASA, MPL. Every depot has 200 to 300 buses of these
companies. BEST pays these companies of Rs.65 per km on daily basis for
transportation.

Complaint by passengers:
BEST also have department to take care of complaints. This department gives
facility for passengers or public to complaint their issues with BEST by 24X7.