Mumbai, June 15 -- Out of the 907 accidents involving Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) buses over the past 10 months, wet lease buses were behind an overwhelming 887 of them while only 20 accidents involved buses owned by the undertaking. Wet lease buses were also behind a majority of the fatal accidents during the period, accounting for 22 of the 23 mishaps that led to deaths between August 2025 and May 2026, data from BEST shows. Sources in the BEST said though the undertaking has 13,418 drivers for around 2,700 buses that ply on 400 routes, drivers of wet least buses are under immense pressure as they shoulder a bulk of the workload for a meagre salary. The hiring criteria for BEST drivers and wet lease drivers is also different, which likely contributes to the high involvement of wet lease vehicles in accidents, sources said. According to data from the BEST, among the 13,418 drivers who ply BEST buses, 6,349 are on the undertaking's payroll while the remaining 7,069 drivers work for various wet lease operators. The latter operate 25,783 daily trips out of the 28,445 trips covered every day by BEST buses. Of the 400 routes, 349 are serviced by wet lease operators while only 51 routes are covered by BEST-owned buses. In other words, wet lease operators employ about 11% more drivers than the BEST, but drivers on their rolls execute nearly 91% of the city's total daily bus services. "If we break down the data, we will see that each wet lease driver makes 3-4 trips a day, and the period on duty stretches till 8-9 hours," said a BEST official, requesting anonymity. Despite the massive workload, wet lease drivers are paid only Rs.15,000-17,000 per month," said Nitin Nandgaonkar, BEST Committee member. BEST sources said the hiring practices of wet lease operators were less stringent and more ad hoc compared to that of the undertaking. "While the BEST imparts thorough training, undertakes sufficient quality checks and verifies the experience of drivers it recruits, wet lease operators hire anyone and everyone who has a light motor vehicle (LMV) license, including those who might have driven a private tourist bus, truck, tempo, taxi or other commercial vehicle," said the BEST official quotes earlier. BEST Committee member Faisal Khan said wet lease operators routinely hire staff on BEST's payroll as drivers as they are unable to find quality drivers themselves. Along similar lines, BEST Workers' Union president Shashank Sharad Rao said, "There are many BEST staff who are employed under the bus driver category but work as conductors at bus stops and depots. These staffers are often hired by wet lease operators as drivers." Officials from the BEST concurred with Khan and Rao, and said BEST staff who are roped in as drivers by wet least operators are paid Rs.900-1,400 per day, depending on the number and length of trips and other factors. A disparity exists in the deployment of conductors too, officials said. The BEST-owned fleet has 6,432 conductors while the much larger wet-lease fleet operates with just 2,165 conductors working in multiple shifts....