Mumbai: The BEST Sanyukt Kamgar Kruti Samiti, an action committee comprising 12 employee unions, has called for an indefinite strike from Friday, which could impact bus services for 23 lakh daily commuters and affect power supply for over a million consumers in the city. It also threatens to upset MMRDA’s Public Transport Day planned on Friday at Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC).BEST officials, however, said that the industrial court, in an ad interim order on Thursday, has restrained staffers and wet-lease contractual workers from going on strike on Friday. The officials said they will go ahead with the BKC plan by introducing 12 additional buses on three key routes to woo more office-goers at the commercial hub.BEST general manager Sonia Sethi said the undertaking has issued a circular invoking the Maharashtra Essential Services Maintenance Act, warning employees that participation in the strike could invite action under the stringent law. Uday Ambonkar, general secretary of BEST Karmachari Sena, said the management has turned a deaf ear to the demands.Shiv Sena (UBT) union leader Nitin Nandgaonkar said he respected the court decision. “Court has asked BEST management to speak with us and resolve issues, but it hasn’t called us for talks. And so we went ahead with strike,” he said.The biggest union, BEST Workers’ Union, has, however, stayed away from the protest, said its leader Shashank Rao. “Negotiations are on with the BEST management, which is why we will not participate. We have asked drivers to ply buses unless there is a law-and-order problem,” said Rao.Among the key demands are merger of BEST budget with BMC, absorption of contractual drivers into permanent posts with better pay and benefits, addition of 5,000 BEST-owned buses to the fleet, and immediate clearance of pending dues of retired employees.Uday Ambonkar, general secretary of BEST Karmachari Sena, said the BMC’s recently sanctioned Rs 500-crore allocation was “welcome but inadequate”, arguing it does not cover the full backlog and could merely defer the crisis.Union leaders are also opposed to ‘privatisation’ in BEST and have cited irregular salary payments, pending arrears, inadequate welfare measures and poor working conditions as reasons for the strike.A senior BEST traffic official said the undertaking was closely monitoring the situation. “I am concerned about the bus operations across the city, including BKC where we have planned to increase the number of buses and trips on a few feeder routes,” the official said.The additional deployment includes four extra buses en route No. 310, which operates between Kurla Station (West) and Bandra Railway Terminus. Another four buses will be added en route No. BKC-2 connecting Kurla Station (West) and Swavalamban Bhavan. Four more buses will be introduced en route No. BKC-3 running between Bandra Bus Station (East) and the CA Institute in BKC.In addition to the regular fleet, 104 buses under the app-based ‘Chalo Premium’ service will also operate in the BKC area on Friday, offering commuters more choices and potentially reducing waiting time during rush hours.As per the existing timetable, BEST currently operates 176 trips using 125 buses on 16 routes serving the BKC area. The trips on Friday will increase to nearly 200 with 137 buses, sources said.
