State transport buses will be purple soon

Purple seems to become a colour that connotes Mumbai’s transport, be it local trains or buses. Now, the state transport too will be sporting purple soon, reports Shashank Rao.

Purple seems to become a colour that connotes Mumbai’s transport, be it local trains or buses. Now, the state transport too will be sporting purple soon.

HT Image

The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation has been planning to transform its look and introduce better-looking buses in addition to comfort and life of these buses.

They have repainted their 100 such buses with purple in the portion above the window, while the space below has been kept white.

However, sources in the transport department said the decision of introducing purple is pending with the state transport authority.

The corporation is also carrying out overall changes in the interiors and exteriors of the bus. It has asked Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay to examine the condition of the age-old buses and suggest ways to improve its look.

“We have asked IIT-B to look into the option of replacing the aluminum-body ST buses with a metal such as mild steel, which would be more durable and heavier than aluminum,” said a corporation official.

IIT-B will also study the quality of seats and its arrangement, bulbs inside the buses and other such details.

With respect to city’s transport, the Alstrom red-white trains that have been running for more than 15 years are slowly being replaced by purple Siemens trains.

There are approximately 88 Siemens local trains in Western and Central Railway.

The numbers will increase as and when the railways would phase out or replace old trains. The BEST, too, has introduced purple air-conditioned King Long buses under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission project.

There are around 25 such buses and the BEST will be getting around 200 more in the coming months.