BEST, Mumbai's lifeline, completes 100 years

Mumbai, Jul 14 (PTI) Mumbai's iconic Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) bus service, which began with just 24 buses on a single route in 1926, will complete 100 years on Wednesday. The first service, connecting Afghan Church in Colaba and Crawford Market, began on July 15, 1926. Today, the BEST undertaking operates a fleet of 2,804 buses serving Mumbai and its suburbs. However, only 249 buses, or 8 per cent of the fleet, are owned by the undertaking, while the remaining 2,555 buses are operated by private contractors. BEST currently ferries around 25 lakh passengers every day across more than 400 routes in Mumbai and the neighbouring cities of Thane, Navi Mumbai and Mira-Bhayander, making it one of India's largest urban bus transport systems. According to S N Pendsay's book "The BEST Story", BEST originally stood for Bombay Electric Supply and Tramways Company. It launched the city's first motor bus service after rejecting proposals for trolley buses. The motor bus service was initially planned as an experiment on three routes: Afghan Church to Crawford Market, Dadar Tram Terminus to King's Circle via Parsi Colony, and Opera House to Lalbaug via Lamington Road and Arthur Road. To start with, BEST operated four buses at 10-minute intervals between Afghan Church (Colaba) and Crawford Market via Wodehouse Road and Hornby Road, and it was an instant success. "The Great Debate started in 1913: the trolley bus or the motor bus? And it went on cheerfully till 1926 with the Municipality, the B.E.S.T. Company, the Commissioner of Police and the others concerned with the problem joining the fray. Finally, on 10th February 1926, the Company plumped for the motor bus," Pendsay writes. Before motor buses began operating in Bombay, the city's public transport network relied primarily on suburban railways, electric trams, horse-drawn trams, Victoria horse carriages and hackney carriages, popularly known as "reklas". Predictably, the introduction of BEST buses faced opposition from Victoria carriage drivers and taxi drivers. Residents, on the other hand, welcomed the new mode of transport with enthusiasm, according to the book. Interestingly, for several years buses were regarded as a mode of transport for the upper middle class, while trams were considered the poor man's transport. Iconic double-decker buses were introduced into the BEST fleet in 1937 to cope with the city's growing traffic. Currently, BEST is the second-largest mode of public transport in Mumbai after the suburban railway network, though it has witnessed a sharp decline in both its fleet size and ridership, with passengers shifting to other modes of public and private transport. Despite the deterioration in fleet size and ridership, BEST remains the backbone of Mumbai's public transport network, connecting millions of commuters every day. PTI KK KRK