BEST strike cripples Mumbai transport for second day

Mumbai,UPDATED: Jun 20, 2026 20:25 IST

Commuters in Mumbai continued to face major disruption on Saturday as the strike by employees of the civic-run Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport undertaking drew a near-total response for the second day. With BEST buses largely off the roads, many people turned to shared taxis, autorickshaws and bike taxis, while some office-goers chose to work from home.

Amid the disruption, BEST said it had arranged 60 additional buses across the city on Sunday to help students appearing for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test retest. The buses will operate between 9 am and 1 pm and again from 5 pm to 7 pm, and the undertaking has also asked the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation to provide 100 buses to strengthen services.

BEST said notices had been served under the Maharashtra Essential Services Maintenance Act to employees taking part in the strike and to wet-lease contractors. It said the move was aimed at maintaining essential transport services and reducing inconvenience to commuters. Under MESMA, legal action can be initiated against striking employees.

Data released by BEST at 10 am showed that none of its 246 scheduled owned buses had left depots. Only four wet-lease buses were on the road against a scheduled turnout of 2,521 buses. The undertaking also reported poor attendance among operational staff.

Among BEST employees, only 26 bus drivers reported for duty against a scheduled strength of 1,937, while nine conductors turned up against 2,646 scheduled personnel. Among starters, 38 employees reported for work against a scheduled deployment of 228. Attendance among bus inspectors was relatively better, with 119 of the 221 scheduled personnel reporting for duty. In wet-lease operations, only eight drivers reported for duty against a scheduled strength of 3,063, while none of the 1,137 scheduled conductors marked attendance.

The absence of buses hit daily commuters, including students and office-goers. A student of MD College in Parel said he usually travels by bus from Dongri but had to take a bike taxi because of the strike, making the journey much more expensive. A group of girl students said they walked from Parel railway station as it was difficult to find a cab during the morning rush. Some office-goers said the situation was less chaotic than on Friday because commuters were already aware of the strike and did not wait at bus stops.

Local trains and metro services were also less crowded on Saturday, which reduced some of the pressure. "There was a long queue for cabs outside Dadar station, but thanks to the shared taxi service, returning to Dadar from KEM Hospital was not a problem," said Dharmesh Tiwari, a resident of Kalwa in Thane district.

BEST said the strike had not affected its electricity supply operations and that power services were functioning normally. It said providing passengers with uninterrupted, safe and reliable services remained the administration's top priority and that all possible efforts were being made to reduce the impact of the strike.

The employees remained on strike despite appeals by Maharashtra Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik, an ad-interim order of an industrial court restraining employees from striking, and the invocation of MESMA. "In the absence of any concrete decision, we have decided to continue our agitation," BEST Sanyukt Kamgar Kruti Samiti convenor Uday Ambonkar told PTI late on Friday night. The joint action committee has called the strike over demands including merger of BEST's budget with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations for 2016-2026, settlement of legal dues of retired employees, an end to contractual arrangements in the transport and electricity departments, and absorption of wet-lease bus workers into BEST. Talks held on Friday between action committee leaders, Urban Development Department officials and the BEST administration remained inconclusive, while the Shramik Utkarsh Sabha and the BEST Kamgar Union have distanced themselves from the agitation. BEST, Mumbai's second-largest public transport provider after the suburban railway network, carries around 25 lakh passengers daily through its fleet of 2,766 buses, most of them hired on a wet-lease basis, and also supplies electricity to more than 10 lakh consumers in the island city.

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