India, July 30 -- In the last two years, the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking recovered Rs.16.52 crore in financial penalties from wet-lease operators for failure to deploy buses from depots, breach of traffic rules by drivers, and bus accidents.

According to data with the undertaking, the administration levied Rs.9.22 crore for failure to deploy buses from depots since January this year. Sources said 18,438 such cases were registered against eight wet-lease operators.

"Despite maintenance schedules, the operators failed to deploy their buses for the day. This inconvenienced passengers as we could not run those trips. It also leads to loss of revenue," said a BEST official.

The BEST operates 2,800-odd bu...