Mumbai needs 10,000 buses, only 3,000 ply today: Ashwini Bhide

Mumbai needs 10,000 buses to ply every day as compared to just 3,000 buses now, especially on the coastal road connecting Marine Drive to Versova, said Ashwini Bhide, Commissioner of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), underlining that it was essential to BEST’s revival.

“The first and foremost aim for BEST’s revival is to increase the fleet size… The coastal road has already accommodated the necessary infrastructure which is required for buses. Of course, BEST will have to ply more buses on the coastal road. BEST is overall struggling on certain issues, but I am sure a very comprehensive plan is being made for overall revival of the bus transport because today their fleet size is limited. Probably, Mumbai needs 10,000 buses for everyday commute, but BEST today has close to 3,000 buses,” said Ms. Bhide at The Hindu’s Maharashtra Infrastructure Conclave on Friday (May 22, 2026) in Mumbai, adding that more small buses need to ply.

Ms. Bhide addressed queries on issues metro commuters face. The recently opened Mumbai Metro Aqua Line, which connects Aarey JVLR with Cuffe Parade, has not received mobile connectivity for about six months now. “This telecom services from our side now, everything is given and I am sure in the next two to three months… because the telecom companies are also supposed to provide services to their customers,” she said. 

Ms. Bhide said the delay was due to logistical issues and changes in laws. “It was the responsibility of the mobile companies to latch on to that and provide mobile services. They did that for the initial few months and then they withdrew for whatever reasons were known to them. It was also seen that the entire telecom act and regulation was changed after we started these services and then suddenly the mobile services were made fundamental, basic services to be provided by a government entity and then free availability of that transport network which was created after spending 100 crores almost was set up. So, we were already in one contract where the aggregator was supposed to provide this infrastructure to mobile companies and then they were not ready to join. Blame of course is always put on the public entity. So, we had that blame. Since then, we have been negotiating with them to finally let all our whatever, you know, our expectation to recover that cost and we negotiated for quite a lot of time,” she said. 

She spoke about the concerns regarding the protests against the coastal road extension. “Which project is not opposed,” she asked while adding that people experience the ease of travel after it is completed. 

Ms. Bhide further addressed the criticism that the monorail project was a “failure” saying the only problem was that there were fewer number of trains.