Taking the Right Turn

What are major reasons behind the decrease in patronage?

The reasons could be availability of multiple modes, non-competitive fares, expansion of suburban network & capacity, and congestion in roads.

BEST has rationalized its fare structure in a way that it will attract more passengers. As part of the fare rationalization, the BEST has also reduced the monthly and quarterly bus pass rates and has taken a major decision for reducing the fares for airconditioned services. Now the minimum fare for AC Service will be Rs.15. The implementation of the decision is likely to be done soon after the approval of the Corporation and Regional Transport Authority.

The BEST Undertaking is exploring possible avenues to cut down the deficit it incurs. Apart from the fare rationalization, BEST is also taking other measures to improve the patronage like point-to-point bus services which will not have any stops in between, corporate bus pass scheme where company will buy passes in bulk for its employees, Happy Hour travel between 11:00 am to 5:00 pm where the daily pass rate will be cut by 50 per cent and many more schemes. In order to improve patronage for its services, BEST has also added slabs of 8, 12 and 17 in the kilometers in its fare structure.

Share taxis and autos have eaten some share of our passengers. The administration hopes to recover its lost ground and add more passengers after the rate rationalization. We are confident that fare rationalization will attract commuters and help reduce the loss. Our main objective is to serve the public and not profit making, but the increase in patronage will decrease the deficit.

Plans ahead…

Earlier, the undertaking had toyed with various ideas to cash in on bus depot land, some of the ideas include selling part of the depot for commercial spaces or shopping plazas, or leasing out part of the depot to private bodies. Now, BEST is considering what could be a win-win idea for a city starved of space to park its ever burgeoning vehicle population — parking facilities inside its 27 bus depots that are sprawled across the city.

During day time, the buses are out on city roads servicing commuters, while motorists look for parking spaces and several times end up parking in no-parking areas, which eventually results in congestion.

Few agencies have come forward to do a study/research on this land bank. Based on their research, we will be able to announce our plans.

Preeti Swaminathan