BEST reintroduces all CNG-run 400 buses that were withdrawn after fire incidents

Mumbai: All 400 Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) buses that were withdrawn on February 22 owing to three incidents of fire in less than a month are back on city roads

Mumbai: All 400 Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) buses that were withdrawn on February 22 owing to three incidents of fire in less than a month are back on city roads. The undertaking on Tuesday reintroduced the last 30 of these CNG-run buses.

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Lokesh Chandra, general manager, BEST confirmed that all 400 non-AC buses on wet lease operated by M/S Mateshwari Urban Transport Ltd, are back in operation. The undertaking has, however, not stated the reasons for the fire incidents nor what they found during the 20-days of inspection of these buses.

With these buses reinstated, BEST undertaking’s fleet will normalise once again to 3,300 buses, which includes 1,300-odd wet lease buses. Senior BEST officials said every time the wet lease operator conducts periodic checks of these 400 BS-6 model buses manufactured by Tata Motors, BEST will be informed following which officials will recheck and also oversee maintenance work.

“It seems there were manufacturing issues with all these BS-6 buses. BEST engineers should also keep track of the maintenance and not just depend on the wet lease operator. Tata Motors, which is the manufacturer of these buses, should also inspect these buses from time to time,” said Ashish Chemburkar, former chairman, BEST Undertaking.

Incidentally, before these incidents of fire, BEST had replaced engines of 65-70 such BEST buses as a preventive measure. The undertaking had also suspended another wet-lease operator, who was running 260-odd buses.

“It seems like the wet lease model isn’t working as intended. The BEST administration should ideally purchase these buses and ensure they are thoroughly inspected rather than depending on external operators,” said Ravi Raja, former BEST panel member. “The daily commuter numbers also dropped.”

Over the last 20 days, the number of daily commuters dropped to 32 lakhs from 35 lakhs. These buses operate on 32 different routes in central and western Mumbai, and start and terminate at depots of Majas, Prateeksha Nagar, Santacruz and Dharavi where these are parked.