|
TOI : BEST to revamp transport routes to optimise costs : Oct 22,2007 A WAY TO KEEP OUT OF THE RED
BEST to revamp transport routes to optimise costs TIMES NEWS NETWORK Mumbai: Staring at a bleak financial future, the BEST Undertaking has decided to revamp its transport routes to save on costs and optimise the run of buses. The BEST administration estimates a loss in 2008-09 in case the burden of staff wage bill and operating expenses are not controlled with immediate effect. Against this backdrop, BEST general manager Uttam Khobragade has devised a plan to split long winding trips into medium and short haul trips. Khobragade said all the long trips would be discontinued in favour of shorter routes. I have seen that a bus running from Borivli to Churchgate does not have even one passenger who travels the entire route. Most passengers get down somewhere in between, Khobragade said. The BEST general manager said it has been found through surveys that passengers boarding a bus at suburbs like Borivli or Dahisar go up to Bandra or Mahim. The same bus is then packed with a different set of passengers from Mahim to Churchgate, he added. It makes more sense to run buses on short to medium distance. It will save us fuel and payment of overtime to staff, he said. It goes without saying that drivers and conductors operating shorter routes would be less stressed out, pointed Khobragade. Under the new plan, Khobragade said BEST would identify four nodal points which would serve as terminating points for the new routes. For instance, we can have Mahim as a nodal point in the west. Buses can run from South Mumbai and Borivli to terminate services at Mahim, he said. Similarly, there will be nodal points on the eastern, central and harbour routes, he said. Worried that the wage bill consumes more than 90 percent of BESTs earnings, Khobragade said the unions were imposing almost impossible conditions on the management. A lucrative voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) would be offered to employees to curb this expenditure. We cannot continue to pay 90% of our revenues to employees in form or another, it has to be streamlines or the Undertaking will collapse, he warned. toireporter@timesgroup.com Publication:Times Of India Mumbai; Date:Oct 22, 2007; Section:Times City; Page Number:4
URL : http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JTS8yMDA3LzEwLzIyI0FyMDA0MDM=&Mode=HTML&Locale=english-skin-custom |
