MUMBAI, June 13 -- The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transportation (BEST) undertaking suffered a setback on Friday, when its annual aid package, amounting to Rs.1,000 crore for 2026-27, was held back by the civic standing committee. While stalling the proposal, committee members pointed to safety concerns following a spate of accidents involving BEST buses that have claimed several lives. The most recent mishap was at Dadar on Monday, where possible human error led to a BEST bus crashing into several vehicles, killing one person and injuring six others. While stalling the proposal on Friday, committee chairperson Prabhakar Shinde also summoned senior BEST officials to explain issues plaguing the loss-making undertaking. Senior BEST officials did not respond to HT's attempts to contact the undertaking for comment. The proposal for financial support, mentioned in the civic budget for 2026-27, may be placed before the standing committee for reconsideration. At Friday's meeting, Ashraf Azmi, group leader of the Congress in the BMC, said, "Although drivers are supposed to have six months of training, they are allowed to drive buses with as little as three days' training, thus putting the lives of bystanders at risk. But why blame only the drivers? The contractors who hire the drivers too should be held accountable." He also sought to know why wet-lease buses account for more than 65% of the BEST's fleet despite the undertaking being offered highly subsidised grants to buy new ones. Once its 5,000-odd staffers retire, the organisation will be entirely in the hands of private contractors, including the BEST depots, he said. Another Congress member, Ajanta Yadav, remarked, "The streets of Mumbai are no longer safe due to untrained BEST drivers, with many people losing their lives on the roads. Despite the infusion of so much public funding into the BEST, the public is not getting good services in return." Saeeda Khan (NCP) said having "untrained drivers" plying buses was concerning as Mumbai has only two lifelines - the train services and the BEST." Deepmala Bhade (Shiv Sena) said the BMC should commercially develop its 26 depots and use the proceeds to procure its own buses. Ganesh Khankar (BJP) questioned whether the Rs.5 ticket price served its purpose and suggested rationalizing fares to make BEST financially more viable. Incidentally, the financial aid package for the BEST includes a sum of Rs.93.78 crore towards recovery of property tax dues. The BMC said the BEST owed it Rs.93.78 crore for nine properties it owned in L-ward at Kurla. This would reduce the aid to Rs.906.21 crore. Standing committee member Shailesh Phanse asked whether the property tax was due from the BEST or private parties, which had commercially developed land at the Kurla depot. Shraddha Jadhav (Shiv Sena-UBT) said, "With the BEST owing dues of over Rs.3,500 crore to its own employees for gratuity and other benefits, how do we know where they intend to spend this aid and whether it would be spent on employees?" She added, "We have given Rs.12,312.07 crore to the BEST since 2012-13, but do we even know what happens to the financial assistance provided to them, and has that usage improved BEST services?" In its proposal, the BMC said that despite providing annual financial assistance, the BEST's debt has continued to mount. It also mentioned that aid is expected to improve the undertaking's financial situation, making it passenger-centric, reducing its debts, helping it devise an action plan for financial revival, and improving its functioning to achieve financial independence. It stressed that the BEST must work on an action plan to pull itself out of financial distress. Shinde pointed out that since chief minister Devendra Fadnavis was himself involved in the financial improvement of BEST, positive announcements about the undertaking were expected....