Mumbai: There will be fewer BEST buses till polling day as 200 of them have been provided to special forces/police on election duty. The fleet of 2,900-odd buses has dropped to 2,700 and will reduce further by 547 on Nov 19-20 when they will be provided to election staff. “There will be a fleet of around 2,100 buses. We are expecting some additional buses to be provided for citizens as there is extra deployment of buses on busy routes during morning and evening hours,” an official said. Passenger rights activists said bus shortages and long waits at some bus stops for as long as 30-45 minutes have continued for nearly a month—first with the fleet shortage and later with 280 contractual buses going off the roads overnight. BEST union leader Ranga Satavse said the average passenger capacity per bus has dipped by 50% in 10 years. tnn