Mumbai, Feb 25 (PTI) Contractual employees of private bus operators employed by the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) on Tuesday observed a one-day strike over payment issue, which inconvenienced commuters as 30 per cent of the buses did not ply on roads, officials said.
“Due to the strike by the drivers and conductors of the BEST’s private operators for their ‘equal work equal pay’ demand, passengers faced a tough time as it led to unavailability of buses at regular intervals,” an official said.
BEST’s public relations officer Sudas Samant said only 1,391 out of the 1,969 buses operated during the day due to the strike.
“Almost 578 buses remained parked inside the BEST depots, although the administration tried to operate a maximum number of buses using its own staff,” he said.
Currently, BEST operates over 2,800 buses – around 1,900 of them on wet-lease contracts and the remaining owned by the undertaking. It ferries around 32 lakh passengers in Mumbai and neighbouring cities. PTI KK NP
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.