BEST creates two twitter handles to take plaints

Currently, a team of BEST officials, supervised by an officer from the secretary department, is managing these two handles. However, the BEST will soon hire an agency to handle it.

You can put out your complaints about the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) on social media, and get timely updates about bus services, as the operator is now on Twitter. The two handles – @MyBESTBus and @MyBESTElectric – were created by BEST, which on Wednesday, celebrated its 72nd Foundation Day.

You can put out your complaints about the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) on social media, and get timely updates about bus services, as the operator is now on Twitter.(Kunal Patil/HT Photo)

“These Twitter handles will be used to address public grievances immediately, besides making necessary announcements about the bus service and power supply,” said Anil Patankar, chairman of BEST Committee, the policy-making body of the undertaking.

After the suburban railways, BEST is the second largest mode of transport in the financial capital. Over 30 lakh passengers travel on the 3,200 buses in its fleet daily, while BEST’s power wing caters to over 10 lakh consumers in the island city. Within a few hours, @MyBESTBus had already received over 100 followers, even though it is yet to put out a tweet.

Patankar said through Twitter, they plan to share important information like starting of new bus routes or diversions of bus routes and planned power outages in specific areas.

“Soon, we will be on other social media platforms as well. An attempt will be made to resolve the public grievances at the earliest,” Patankar added. It will take a few more days to entirely launch the Twitter accounts.

Currently, a team of BEST officials, supervised by an officer from the secretary department, is managing these two handles. However, the BEST will soon hire an agency to handle it.

Transport experts welcomed the move, but said BEST will now have to upgrade its infrastructure faster.

“If BEST will not take measures such as dedicated bus lanes, people will keep complaining about the lack of bus frequency, and BEST will not able to give them a satisfactory response,” said AV Shenoy, transport expert.

BEST had earlier launched its Facebook page, but it did not gain traction as users could not comment or tag the operator.

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