Have not lost much patronage to Metro: BEST

The Brihanmumabai Electric Supply & Transport (BEST) has claimed that it has not lost a lot of its patronage on the Metro route, as earlier thought. Providing details of route number 340 that runs between Ghatkopar station and Andheri station as a case study, the undertaking has given figures showing that not more than an approximate of 200 of its commuters have migrated elsewhere, since Metro service was started back in June 2014.

This comes at the background of revelations last year, when it was seen that BEST’s number of commuters had dropped from 40 lakhs to 32 lakhs. As a result, BEST committee members criticised the management about not trying hard enough to retain its commuters via new schemes and initiatives. Also the BEST had increased its fare twice in the same year, in February 2015 and again in April, 2015.

The figures showed that the before the Metro, between December 2013 to May 2014 the number of commuters that travelled on the route number 340 were 1,530 per day, the next phase between June and July saw 1,106 commuters per day (when the Metro was launched), the numbers keep varying until April to July and then August to October of 2015 when the numbers are 1,232 and 1, 290.

A BEST official on the condition of anonymity said, “If you see the numbers they have come to almost 1,200 average over the seven months between April and October last year. So we think that this was is the most stable period after the fare hike in February and May in our fares last year, it basically shows that people might have shifted to the Metro initially but have eventually come back to the BEST.”