Thousands stranded as BEST strike cripples Mumbai bus services; only 32 hit roads

An indefinite strike by employees of the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport undertaking brought much of Mumbai's bus network to a standstill on Friday, leaving thousands of office-goers, students and other commuters stranded during the morning rush.

BEST said only 38 of its 2,766 buses left depots during the morning peak. Six of those buses were later forced back after stone-pelting and obstruction, leaving just 32 buses on the roads, according to the undertaking's latest count.

Morning disruption

The impact was most visible at the start of the workday, when many passengers depend on BEST buses for short and medium-distance travel across the city. Reports said commuters heading to offices and schools were among those most affected as they scrambled for alternate transport.

The disruption also raised concern beyond the bus network. BEST operates power supply services in parts of Mumbai, and reporting on Friday said the industrial action could affect electricity consumers in South and central Mumbai as well.

How the strike began

The walkout was called by the BEST Sanyukt Kamgar Kruti Samiti, a joint action committee representing 12 unions. The unions had announced earlier in the week that they would begin an indefinite strike from June 19 if their demands were not addressed.

Those demands include better pay, payment of retirees' dues, regularisation of contractual drivers, abolition of contractual arrangements, merger of BEST and BMC budgets, more BEST-owned buses and absorption of wet-lease workers.

The strike began shortly after midnight and quickly spilled into the morning commute. Economic Times reported that BEST had planned extra buses for the Bandra-Kurla Complex area, but that the service gap still left many commuters without reliable transport.

Management and union positions

BEST general manager Sonia Sethi said the undertaking had issued a MESMA circular warning employees that participation in the strike could trigger legal action. Reports also said an industrial court had issued an ad-interim order restraining employees and wet-lease contractual workers from joining the strike.

BEST chairperson Trushna Vishwasrao appealed to employees to return to work as the disruption deepened. The undertaking said it was trying to maintain some service, even as the number of buses leaving depots remained far below normal.

The union side says the dispute has been building over long-pending issues and that management has not adequately responded to worker demands. At the same time, reporting noted that the BEST Workers' Union, the largest union, was not joining the strike, leaving the action without full participation across the workforce.

What happens next

The immediate question is whether talks resume and whether service can be partially restored later in the day. Officials are also under pressure to clarify how the industrial court order and MESMA warning may affect the strike if it continues.

For commuters, the stakes are immediate: further disruption could ripple through office travel, school routes and other daily trips across Mumbai, with knock-on effects if the power-supply division is also affected.

The clearest verified picture on Friday was that Mumbai's bus network was hit hard early in the day, with only a small fraction of the fleet on the road as the labor dispute escalated.