I travel by BEST bus number 505 from chembur to bandra SV Road in the morning. This bus starts from Belapur culminating its journey at Bandra station.

On most days the driver decides not to stop the bus on enroute stops even if it is fairly vacant. If he is kind enough to stop, you realize that the first six seats (behind the driver) are occupied by employees of BEST!! The seats on the other side are reserved for the senior citizens and handicapped.

You resign and are mentally prepared to stand...but what happens??? the driver drives rashly and applies break every 5 minutes as a result of which you are swaying and bumping into your co passenger(both standing in front of you and behind you)...Its an extremely uncomfortable journey you end up reaching your place of work with your whole body aching. However you notice that the driver is smirking and enjoying the discomfort that the passengers are facing.

We do not grudge the seats reserved for certain categories (senior citizens) but are there seats reserved for BEST employees???


The scene repeats in the evening. The bus starts from Bandra bus depot. . . .there are about 100-150 people patiently standing in the the que and the BEST employees come and enter through the front door and ensure that they occupy the front seats. Imagine the feelings of the people standing in the heat for so long and not being able to get a place to sit!!

Despite protests to the driver/conductor and inspectors at the depot there is no action…they are mute spectators to the whole drama and they ignore pleas from the people.

BEST employees should not be allowed to break the line and enter from the front while the general public is waiting in the line for hours

There should be a cap on the number of BEST employees in uniform can travel free of cost in each route. BEST employees are allowed to travel free of cost in public transport but occupy seats only if there are no passengers standing

Alternatively BEST can run seperate buses for their employees so that we are spared of the daily ordeal.