BEST Is At Its Worst: Mumbai’s Buses Crawl At 7 Kmph Average, Accelerating Losses 

The average speed of Mumbai’s BEST buses has dropped down to seven kmph, which is less than a half compared to the past decade, reports Times of India.

The TOI report has used its analytics to show that the average speed of the vehicles over certain stretches has come down to 3-4 kmph, quoting LBS Marg as the prime example.

Metro construction activities have been cited as the reason for the reduction in the average speed. Road digging and illegal parking is also among other reasons identified by BEST panel members.

Slowing speed is also why commuters are switching to private transport.

BEST has lost lakhs of commuters due to reduced frequency, Ravi Raja, panel member of BEST, was quoted as saying by TOI. The losses are reported to be close to Rs 300 crore a year.

A recent BEST statistics also cited a loss of Rs 83 lakh a day. The BEST fleet of 3,337 buses has to complete a run of around 7,00,000 km/day.

In 2008, the average speed of a BEST bus during peak hours was 16 kmph.