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Correspondent

23 August 2024 at 4:29:04 pm

Hostage City

For a city that prides itself on never stopping, Mumbai has been brought to a grinding halt by the stoppage of one of its most indispensable services. The indefinite strike by employees of the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking has effectively paralysed the city’s bus network, leaving millions of commuters stranded and exposing deep fissures in the management of one of India’s largest urban transport systems. BEST ferries around 25 lakh passengers daily through a...

Hostage City

For a city that prides itself on never stopping, Mumbai has been brought to a grinding halt by the stoppage of one of its most indispensable services. The indefinite strike by employees of the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking has effectively paralysed the city’s bus network, leaving millions of commuters stranded and exposing deep fissures in the management of one of India’s largest urban transport systems. BEST ferries around 25 lakh passengers daily through a fleet of nearly 2,800 buses. Yet over the past three days, the city has witnessed the near-total collapse of this network. On the first day of the strike, only a few dozen buses operated. By the weekend, not a single BEST-owned or wet-lease bus was on the roads. Local trains, Metro services, taxis and autorickshaws have been forced to absorb the shock and are predictably straining under the burden. The strike may be illegal under the Maharashtra Essential Services Maintenance Act (MESMA), and the industrial court may have ordered employees back to work. Yet laws and court orders cannot substitute for sound governance. When a public utility reaches the point where thousands of workers are willing to risk disciplinary action and legal consequences, it signals a failure that predates the strike itself. The demands raised by the unions are hardly new. Employees have long sought implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations, settlement of retirement dues, an end to contractualisation and the merger of the BEST budget with that of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. Whether one agrees with every demand is beside the point. What is striking is that these issues have been allowed to fester for years without a credible roadmap for resolution. Equally troubling is the government’s reactive approach. Ministers and officials rushed into negotiations only after services collapsed and public inconvenience reached intolerable levels. Such crisis management has become a familiar feature of governance. The unions, too, must recognise the wider consequences of their actions. Public transport is the bloodstream of a city. Every day the strike continues, daily wage earners lose income and ordinary citizens bear higher travel costs. The disruption disproportionately hurts those who can least afford alternatives. Holding Mumbai hostage may attract attention to legitimate grievances, but also risks eroding public sympathy. Mumbai has spent years celebrating new Metro corridors, coastal roads and grand infrastructure projects. Yet the humble bus remains the most affordable and accessible mode of transport for millions. Policymakers often treat BEST as an ageing institution to be managed rather than a vital public service to be strengthened. The increasing reliance on contract workers and wet-lease operations may reduce immediate costs, but also weakens institutional stability and labour relations. A city of Mumbai’s scale cannot afford a public transport system perpetually balanced on the edge of financial distress, labour unrest and administrative uncertainty. Nor can it depend on emergency measures whenever disputes arise.

The Invisible Network Powering Mumbai’s Commute

Nearly 80 lakh passengers travel every day, often shoulder to shoulder, quietly relying on one another in moments that rarely get noticed. I’ve seen commuters lean forward to spot an approaching train, hesitate for a second, and then turn to a stranger for clarity. These small, instinctive interactions guide the city in real time. Long before apps existed, this was how information moved through shared awareness andhuman judgment. There’s a quiet resilience in how strangers step in for each other, without hesitation, when uncertainty sets in.


If you observe closely, you start to realise that Mumbai’s transport system is not just steel, signals, andschedules. It is also made up of people constantly reading their environment, interpreting signals, andexchanging tiny but crucial pieces of information. A nod, a quick word, a raised eyebrow when a train is too full. These micro interactions keep the flow moving even when formal systems fall short.


As mobility increasingly shifts to digital platforms, I’ve often reflected on what we risk losing in that transition. The challenge isn’t to replace this human network, but to carry its essence forward in a form that still feels immediate, credible, and useful. Schedules and alerts play an important role, but during peak hours, sudden delays, or extreme weather events, they are rarely enough. In those moments, commuters need context. Is the next train delayed? Is it already overcrowded? Is entry or exit at the station affected? Are the escalators or elevators operational today? These are questions commuters instinctively ask each other on the platform, yet they often go unanswered once someone turns to a screen.


What makes human to human information so powerful is not just speed, but trust. When someone standing next to you says, “That train is already packed” or “They just announced a delay,” it carries weight because it comes from lived experience, not a distant system. Digital tools are excellent at scale, but they often struggle with this kind of situational awareness.


This thinking shaped how we approached community and communication while building Yatri. As the official Mumbai Local app partnered with Indian Railways, Yatri already supports lakhs of commuters with live train tracking, metro ticket booking, and multimodal journey planning across local trains, metro, buses, monorail, and ferries. But system level data, however accurate, cannot fully capture the lived reality of a crowded platform or a situation that is evolving minute by minute. What can capture it is people when they are given a trusted, relevant space to share what they are seeing and experiencing in real time.


Creating line specific spaces across the Western, Central, and Harbour lines became a natural way to let that collective commuter intelligence surface digitally. In practice, this means a delay noticed by a few people at Dadar can quickly help someone deciding whether to board at Borivali. A blocked exit or broken escalator can be flagged before thousands walk into it. These details rarely appear instantly in official feeds, yet they are exactly what commuters need when making fast decisions.


Over time, I’ve seen how even the smallest pieces of shared information can change outcomes at scale. During monsoon disruptions, a few timely updates can help thousands of commuters make safer, faster choices. When a single peak hour train carries over 3,000 passengers, one informed decision whether to wait, switch trains, or take an alternate route can ease congestion, reduce panic, and save precious time. When these moments stack up across the network, they have the power to influence millions of journeys.


What is striking is how closely this mirrors what Mumbai commuters have always done. The difference now is reach. A message that once travelled five people down a platform can now reach thousands across an entire line.


For me, this is not about adding another feature to a mobility app. It is about recognising how Mumbai actually works. People do not experience transport as routes and timetables. They experience it as packed platforms, rushed decisions, missed connections, and small acts of help from strangers. Technology should respect that reality, not flatten it.


By bringing together official transit data and collective commuter insight, daily travel can move from something reactive and stressful to something calmer and more assured. In a city where millions move together every day, the future of mobility is not just smarter systems. It is about strengthening the quiet human intelligence that already keeps Mumbai moving. Creating Yatri has been our attempt to make sure that intelligence does not disappear as travel becomes more digital, but instead grows stronger when shared.


(The writer is a co-founder of Yatri. Views personal.)

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