Month: August 2020

After Pioneering Rolling Cloth Destination Boards, BEST Now Switches To Dust-Written Displays

The Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking, which has pioneered the use of rolling cloth displays for its destination boards on buses for decades since inception, has finally found a solution to a problem that has plagued it for the last decade. Thanks to the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM; whose logo is a jurm for being ugly), most buses got themselves route indicator boards that were LED (light emitting diode) displays.

In the first five years since LED route indicators were introduced (2007 onwards), they stopped working. While BEST did try to fix them and look for alternatives including using a chalk board, the culprit was soon identified. The displayed began malfunctioning when buses were washed. Rumour has it that BEST contacted its southern counterpart, the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) in 2013, asking them how LED display units were functional after washing the bus. They allegedly received a very simple response: “What does washing a bus mean?“.

Keeping all this in mind, BEST has now decided to go a step forward and get a new technology using one of the most abundant elements available – dust. Yes, that’s right, BEST is now using Dust-Written displays now. Below is an image of one such display on Route 200 from Shrawan Yeshwante Chowk (Kala Chowky) to Versova Yari Road Bus Station.

After pioneering Rolling Cloth displays for decades, BEST buses are sporting a new technology: Dust Writing Displays.
After pioneering Rolling Cloth displays for decades, BEST buses are sporting a new technology: Dust Writing Displays.

We got in touch with freelance dust expert and garbologist Rajgira Khamandhokle to learn more. Readers may be reminded that Rajgira Khamandhokle is a frequent traveler on buses, having not once, but twice learnt a valuable lesson from a conductor. (You can read here and here)

We learnt that a dust-written display is extremely power efficient and eco-friendly. When we asked what would happen if the writing gets washed away in the rains, we were told that the amount of dust being kicked up on Mumbai’s roads would easily settle on the glass panel, making for an easy re-drawing.

The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) through BEST is sensitising the need of washing hands and that fans of the MCGM are seeing this as an eye opener campaign to bring down Covid19 (Wuhan Virus) cases in the city. An MCGM spokesperson who wanted to remain anonymous said that anyone who writes the destination on a bus would be given free sanitizer. Though he wanted to remain anonymous and that we over here don’t care about such a concept, we would like to informe that he doesn’t work at the Ghatkopar Depot and his name is not Mahesh Sakhalkar.

On noticing Tanu loves Manu written on one of the buses, Tinder was trying to capitalise on the new system and save the sinking Titanic.

Note: The above article is meant to be humourous. Please don’t register a police complain or send goondas to the writer’s residence.

Featured image: A cloth display on Bus 342 from Goregaon Station (East) to Kokan Vikas Mandal via New Zealand Hospital by Bhavik Vasa (via Twitter)

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KSRTC Rearranges Seating In Buses To Maintain Social Distancing

During to the ongoing Wuhan Virus pandemic, public transport is changing in many ways. While Delhi Metro and Mumbai Metro have put up stickers on alternating seats asking users to not sit there (read here and here respectively), BEST and other bus operators have earmarked specific seating patterns such as leaving the aisle seats empty and only occupying alternate rows.

In a rather radical move, the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation has decided to amend the seating arrangement in its buses. Reporting for ToI, Christin Mathew Philip states that buses are now only authorised to carry half the passengers that they could earlier. Accordingly, a Rajahamsa bus has been modified.

You can see images of the new arrangement below. Click on the images to see a larger version.

KSRTC has done away with their earlier 2×2 seating and has opted for a 1x1x1 pattern. Instead of two pairs of seats per row, the bus now features three independent seats per row, with its capacity coming down from 39 passengers to 29 passengers. The Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) too has reportedly done the same.

The future of transportation looks very bleak to me however. I wonder what will happen to air-conditioned buses, especially the Volvo and Scania fleet.

Featured Image: A KSRTC Rajahamsa built by Veera Vahana on an Eicher chassis heads to the departure bay to work a Bangalore-Davanagere-Harihar service. This bus is homed at Harihar Depot. Credits: Binai Sankar/Flickr, all rights reserved.

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An Aerial Shot From Tamil Nadu: Take A Look At Salem’s Central Bus Terminus

I’m sorry for not posting much this month, things have been busy in the offline world. Anyway, here is another drone shot. This time from Tamil Nadu.

Have you heard of Salem? No, not Salem, Oregon, or Salem, Massachusetts where the infamous Salem Witch Trials took place between 1692 and 1693. Salem, Tamil Nadu is the fifth largest city in the state and among the state’s 12 entries as part of the Smart Cities Mission.

Salem is home to two bus stations. The old bus station, known as Town Bus Terminus and the new bus terminus, known as the Central Bus Terminus or officially the Bharat Ratna Dr. M. G. R. Central Bus Stand. The older bus station is located at the heart of the city, on the southern banks of the Thirumanimutharu river, adjacent to the Salem Municipal Corporation’s Office in a locality known as the First Agraharam. It is currently being renovated and rebuilt as a two-tier bus station by the Salem Smart City Limited.

The new bus station is located in the north of the city on Omalur Main Road (the old national highway (NH 44, old NH 7) that passes through the city). It caters to most outstation buses to Chennai, Bangalore, Coimbatore, and Cochin, including buses operated by TNSTC, SETC and KSRTC.

Below is an aerial photograph of the New Bus Station, clicked by Dhenesh.

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Covid lockdown has made us to forget some of our daily views , which were a part of our routine life!! Things once we were used to have now become memories, a bitter truth!! This shot is Just to revive your memories of Salem new bus stand!! ____________________________________________ #salem #yercaud #tamilnadutourism #aerialholicclicks #aerialholic #lockdown #_coi #dronesofindia #indiaundiscovered #dronesofinstagram #vikatanpixel #tamilnadu #indiapictures #tamilnaduphotography #djiindia #incredibleindia #dji #cntgiveitashot #condenasttraveller #othallofframe #tnlindia #thrillophilia #lonelyplanetindia #lpmiindianscenes #natgeoyourshot #natgeoindia #yourshotphotographer #natgeotravel #indiafromabove #spiritofindia @indian.hobbygraphy @photograohers_of_india @natgeotravellerindia @natgeoyourshot @indian.photography @desi_diairies @indiapictures @official_photography_hub @djiglobal @natgeoindia

A post shared by Dhenesh | Travel Photographer (@aerial_holic) on

Don’t forget to follow Dhenesh here: @aerial_holic.

In the above image, you can see the entire bus station along with the tail end of the bus stand arm of the ₹441 crore two tier flyover that connects central Salem. Officially called the Puratchi Thalaivi J. Jayalalithaa two-tier flyover, it is 7.87 km long and connects all the major roads in the city. It was inagurated by Chied Minister Edappadi K Palaniswamy on 11 June this year.

Interestingly, I have been able to find absolutely zero images of India’s largest bus station, the Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus (CMBT) from above. I’ve also not found a single one from Coimbatore either.

This was a double bonanza. A bus terminus and a flyover.

Featured image: Salem New Bus Stand by Purshotam Pareek on Google Maps.

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Forget Buses And Metro, The Fish Have Arrived At Mumbai’s New Aquarium

Exactly two months ago, a Cyclone (or was it?) called Nisarga allegedly swept across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. The Chief Minister’s new aquarium project saw a massive push with water all over the streets. While we had back then reported that the fish would eventually arrive, it has finally arrived after a spell of rains in the last 24 hours.

Now, we have learned that the fish have arrived at Parel station where they were swimming over the railway tracks. It seems these fish are also transit fans.

Here is a video of the fish swimming!

This is probably the fastest that any project of such magnitude has ever come up in India. Former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ metro works were slower than this and credit must be given to the BEST CM ever.

Also Read: Cyclone Nisarga What? Here Are Visuals From Mumbai’s Brand New World-Class Aquarium

Also Read: Satire: BEST To Capitalise On CM’s New-Found Fame, Will Feature His Face On All New Buses

Featured image: Aquarium by macrovector from Freepik. You can view the original here.

Note: The above article is meant to be humourous. Please don’t register a police complain or send goondas to the writer’s residence.

Or, as Karthik puts it, PS: Satire alert⚠️🚨. Not to be taken seriously unless you are a BMC official.😅😅

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