Mumbaikars heaved a sigh of relief on Wednesday, as the drivers and conductors of Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) buses called off their 35-hour-long strike, after the management agreed to postpone the implementation of the new computerised scheduling system by two months.
A BEST spokesperson said that the BEST had agreed to defer the implementation of new computerised roaster system – better known as “Canadian Schedule” –which was to come into force from Tuesday morning --till June 1.
“The new computerized schedule would be implemented first on a pilot basis in Malad depot (in northern suburbs first). After examining the impediments that arise in the implementation of the new schedule, the BEST would make necessary changes in the new schedule and introduce the same for the whole city from June 1,” a senior civic official said.
The BEST bus drivers and conductors had gone on a flash strike from Tuesday morning, in protest against the new computerized scheduling system. With buses going off the city roads, at least four million passengers had been put to considerable hardships.
Under the new computerised scheduling system, the BEST bus drivers and conductors would have to be on duty for 12 hours in a day. They will have to ply the buses on one route for the first four hours of the day, rest for four hours at the work station for four hours and ply the buses once again on another route for another four hours.
The apprehension nursed by the protesting bus drivers is that given the traffic in the city and nature of roads, they would end up working for at least 14 to 15 hours in a day. The BEST runs a fleet of 3,380 buses on 335 routes and ferries over 40 lakh passengers daily in Mumbai and its suburbs of Navi Mumbai, Thane and Mira Road.