Six years after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking has finally disbursed ₹30 crore in pending allowances to 9,077 retired employees who operated essential bus services during the lockdown. The payments, made on Wednesday, aim to compensate staff who risked their health during the pandemic. Initially, the government promised a daily allowance of ₹300 for frontline workers, but payments abruptly halted after December 2020, leaving many employees without support. Although the retired employees have received their dues, active employees who assisted during the pandemic are still awaiting their allowances. This disbursement is part of a broader effort to address financial backlogs faced by BEST, which has chronic financial constraints. A total of ₹78 crore was sanctioned for these dues, and previously, ₹105 crore has been paid across four instalments to the wider workforce. Shashank Sharad Rao, an employee representative, acknowledged the relief from the recent payments but noted that gratuity payments for several employees remain pending, with around 1,000 workers still awaiting their Covid allowance due to verification issues.