Transport in Mumbai - History - Post 1940

Post 1940

Pursuant to the option given to it under the deed of concession granted to the Bombay Electric Supply and Tramways Co. Ltd, the Bombay Municipal Corporation acquired on 7 August 1947, the assets of the combined undertaking, namely the operation of tramways and distribution of electricity in the city of Bombay as a going concern. By mutual agreement, the corporation also took over the operation of the bus services, which was run by the Bombay Electric Supply & Transport Company.

Thus, the Bombay Electric Supply & Transport Company was municipalised and came to be known as Bombay Electric Supply & Transport.

When the corporation took over the company in 1947, there were 242 buses in operation on 23 routes and these buses carried 238,000 passengers per day. At present, there are 4680 buses carrying 480,000 passengers daily on 400+ routes. With the change in the name of the city from Bombay to Mumbai, the organisation is now known as Brihanmumbai Electric Supply & Transport (BEST).

Some interesting facts of present-day BEST bus:

• BEST has introduced AC Kinglong services on certain routes.
• From 19 November 2004, route SPL-8 plying from Churchgate to World Trade Centre started accepting cashless smart cards for automatic fare collection in BEST buses.
• BEST currently has 1500+ environment friendly Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses on its fleet and plans to increase the number of buses.
• Due to the 7/11 bombings, BEST installed an audio-visual surveillance system (CCTV) on each of its buses to monitor suspicious behaviour aboard its vehicles.
• Almost all buses have two LCD TV's per bus. BEST buses are most maintained buses.
• AC buses are very popular with office goers. AC bus "AS-4" from Oshiwara Depot to Backbay Depot, is the highest income grosser for BEST. "AS-4" is the most popular bus with morning office goers, as it covers a distance of about 30 km from Andheri to Mantralaya in about one and half hours only.