Cash crunch puts BEST museum plan on hold

The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking’s poor financial health has put its proposal to set up a transport museum inside Byculla zoo on the back burner.

The BEST authorities had declared their intention of creating a museum inside the zoo two years ago to showcase the city’s transport heritage. However, there has been no progress since the announcement.

In 2017, the BEST had announced its intention to shift its existing museum at Anik depot in Wadala to the new penguin exhibit building inside the zoo. The decision was based on the poor footfall at the existing 20-year-old museum.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) was of the view that it would expose the visitors of the penguin exhibit to the city’s transport history as most metropolises across the world have one such museum. It was supposed to house models of all of the city’s known transport systems, starting from the tram to the Metro and Monorail. It was also supposed to have a electric tram simulator.

‘BMC stand a relief’

Municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta said that the museum plan had not been dropped but “we need to revive BEST first”. The BMC is yet to appoint a consultant for the museum to curate the artefacts and source authentic information on them. Mr. Mehta’s stance comes as a relief to the zoo administration as some staffers were sceptical about the plan in the first place. A zoo staffer said, “Even if the plan goes ahead, they will need a number of clearances from the zoo authorities. We are afraid all that construction work and interior work will disturb our penguins.”

BEST committee chairman Ashish Chemburkar said, “Yes, we have set the proposal aside as of now because we want to focus on the BEST’s financial health.”

Sunil Ganacharya, another committee member and BJP corporator, said, “I think it is correct that the administration wants to focus on the BEST’s revival now. The museum can be looked into later.” The existing museum at Anik depot will stay now.

The BEST had recently recovered from one of the longest strikes by workers’ unions in its history. The strike, demanding pay hike and merger of the BEST budget with the BMC budget. went on for nine days. Transport experts and activists have suggested measures that need to be undertaken immediately to save the BEST.