Mumbai transport: BEST to add 1,300 e-buses to its fleet

Mumbai's BEST will soon add 1,300 electric buses to its fleet as part of a plan for 3,500 e-buses, amid safety concerns following recent accidents.

MUMBAI: The Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking received a boost on Monday, as in the first day of the winter session of the state legislature in Nagpur, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis announced that 1,300 electric buses (e-buses) will be added to its fleet soon.

Currently, the transport body’s fleet comprises 2,913 buses, of which 1,900 are on wet-lease contract(HT Photo)

Currently, the transport body’s fleet comprises 2,913 buses, of which 1,900 are on wet-lease contract while the remaining are owned by the Undertaking.

The new additions will be part of the 3,500 e-buses BEST plans to include in its own fleet. The transport utility has sought a grant of ₹2,800 crore from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in the FY 2025-26 budget, to provide for procuring buses, employee salaries, expansion of power supply network, etc.

Meanwhile, before Fadnavis’s announcement, BEST had placed orders for 2,300 buses, which include 2100 AC single-decker 12-metre-long e-buses and 200 AC double-decker e-buses.

The state government’s announcement comes at a time when the wet-lease model adopted by BEST has received much flak in view of the recent spate of accidents involving buses driven by drivers from outsourced vendors. After the accident on December 9 at a busy Kurla thoroughfare that killed eight and injured 41, BEST woke up to the need for stringent Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), one of them being training drivers on automatic transmission vehicles. Investigations into the Kurla accident brought to light that the driver was given only three rounds of training to switch over from manual to e-bus, whereas the rule-book mandates a four-week training.

After the Kurla accident

In a week since the accident in Kurla, there have been mishaps in CSMT, Govandi and Goregaon involving BEST buses. Following the Kurla accident, BEST sought a detailed explanation from the six wet-lease operators about their recruitment policies, driver training modalities, salaries, background checks done before recruitment and speeds set in their bus fleets.

Senior BEST officials said each wet-lease operator operates on different sets of rules, and that it was imperative to bring them under a single umbrella. This led to the need for common SOPs that should be followed by all. A five-member committee was also formed to work out the uniform rule. “We have received inputs from the wet-lease operators, which we will study and compare with our own SOPs. Thereafter, we will frame a common set of rules which will be presented to the government,” explained a BEST official.

HT has learnt, some of the probable inclusions will be the need for defensive driving (where the driver is aware of potential hazards), simulator-based driver training, in addition to on-hand wheel test. A special module will be created for drivers transitioning from manual to e-buses. Breathalyser tests have been made mandatory before and after a driver completes his schedule.