The BEST undertaking, in addition to the increased bus fare, has now started collecting tolls from passengers crossing Mumbai city limits. BEST said now that the concessional fares have been done away with, charging the toll is back. The BEST undertaking implemented a bus fare hike two weeks ago, doubling the fares for both AC and non-AC buses. “I was quite surprised to find that we had to pay a toll while crossing the city borders. It has never been the case. BEST buses are now taking a toll amount of Rs 2 for passenger tickets. It is a public transport bus, and this is quite unfair,” commuter Dinesh Patel said.

Patel was travelling on a C-12 bus from Dahisar to Santacruz, which passes through the Dahisar toll booth. “We were shocked to find that a public transport bus is now levying a toll on its commuters when private four-wheelers are also exempt. What kind of an administration is this?” said Rupal Kumari, another commuter. “This is insane. There is no point burdening commuters with additional fare like this. This way more commuters will go away from BEST and move to autos. BEST is killing its own commuters by doing all this,” Rupesh Shelatkar, president of the commuter rights’ body, Aapli BEST Aaplya Sathi, said.