The general manager of Brihanmumbai Electric Supply & Transport (BEST), Jagdish Patil, has defended the undertakings decision to rent buses from private companies.
The general manager of Brihanmumbai Electric Supply & Transport (BEST), Jagdish Patil, has defended the undertakings decision to rent buses from private companies.
Mr Patil said that the order for procurement of 303 buses has been made at a cost Rs 153 crore, an amount the undertaking has been unable to raise so far.
The BEST came under fire after reports that it would be renting the buses. Further, the BEST committee members too had demanded an explanation for such a decision.
“We would like to know if the BEST is seriously considering renting buses from private firms; because if it is so, it looks like we are getting ready to hand over the reins of the undertaking to private companies who are just waiting for the BEST to fail sooner or later,” said member Sunil Ghanacharya.
Mr Patil said that unless there is an influx of funds, the BEST would not be able to even fulfil the order of 303 new buses that was placed a few months ago. “We are no longer in a financial position to buy buses, we can only lease or rent them. We are yet to figure out where we will get the Rs 153 required for the 303 buses we had ordered under the Jawaharlal Nehru urban development scheme a few months ago,” said Mr Patil. He further said that the tenders for the rented buses would soon be floated.
“The tenders will be floated and of course we have some particular specifications so let us see what the response to the tender is and we will then take it from there,” he added.
The BEST has already scrapped its plan to get 50 midi-buses that are easy to manoeuvre in traffic owing to lack of funds.
