best trip without a ticket, Mumbai: Revenue lost without a ticket; 1 lakh 23,000 passengers traveled without a ticket in 4 years on the best bus

Mr. Ta. Special Representative, Bombay: While passengers without tickets are found in suburban railways, the number of such passengers is also not less in BEST buses. Due to the increase in the number of passengers and the lack of planning of unmanned bus services, the number of ticketless passengers continues to increase. Action has been taken against 1 lakh 23 thousand 842 ticketless passengers from 2019 to January 2022. The number of ticketless passengers is increasing, which also affects BEST’s revenue.

After the corona infection subsided and various services in Mumbai returned to normal, BEST trains are also packed. There are often passengers without a ticket on this route. Passengers traveling without a ticket often try to escape by showing their hands and saying “pass”. Many passengers who have boarded crowded buses stand by the door and attempt to get off at their stop without taking a ticket. “BEST” tries to catch all these passengers and collect fines through ticket inspectors. But this is not possible every time.

Some even take advantage of the carrier-free service launched by the BEST administration. The BEST initiative had launched driverless bus services on 13 routes in October 2019. Now, unmanned bus services are running on 68 routes. There is no driver on the bus, but tickets are issued to passengers by the driver standing at the bus stop himself. During rush hours at intermediate stops, some passengers board the bus without noticing the driver and often travel without a ticket. Sometimes the ticket is not available for the passenger until the last stop because the driver is not available to issue the ticket at the bus stop itself. This further increases the number of unaccompanied passengers.

In 2019, 36,000,821 ticketless passengers were arrested. Measures were taken against 11 thousand 469 passengers in 2020, 27 thousand 547 passengers without tickets in 2021. In 2022 there was a strong increase and measures were taken against 42 thousand 802 people. Even in January 2023, 5 thousand 203 people were caught in the action. In the measures taken since 2019, a total of 79 lakh 90 thousand 752 rupees has been recovered so far.

100 rupees fine

– Passengers without a ticket are charged ten times the fare amount plus the fare amount. There is a fine of Rs 100 and the fine is collected by charging the fare.

33 lakh passengers per day

-Currently, BEST has 33 lakh 46,000,853 passengers per day. So the daily income is 1 crore 88 lakh 42 thousand rupees. BEST has 8 thousand 480 carriers and 8 thousand 92 drivers