It’s official, Mumbai’s first electric double deckers are to hit the city’s streets on 21 February 2023. The Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking put out a press note announcing the details.
BEST’s press note announcing launch of the electric double decker services
The bus will operate on route A-115 between the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) and the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA) from 8.45am with a frequency of 30 minutes. On weekends, the bus will operate on the heritage track from 9am onwards.
Each bus will be conductor-less and use Chalo’s Tap-In, Tap-Out system, thus requiring all users to either have a Chalo Card or the Chalo App.
After a gap of twenty years, double decker buses have returned to the roads of the southern city of Hyderabad, and this time in an electric avatar, making the City of Pearls to be the first city in India to have double-decker buses in operation. Double deckers were earlier operated by the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) until services folded up in 2003. Double deckers were introduced under the Nizam State Railways – Road Transport Division (NSR-RTD) of the erstwhile Hyderabad State. With the subsequent bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in 2014, city services in Hyderabad came under the aegis of the Hyderabad Zonal Urban Road Transport Corporation (HZURTC) that comes under and operates using its parent body, the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC).
Open deck and regular double deckers of the HMDA and TSRTC (Image Tweeted by Arvind Kumar)
The Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) placed an order for six buses, of which three have been delivered with the rest to be delivered soon. The HMDA is looking to up its fleet to 20 such buses. The buses are Ashok Leyland Switch EiV 22 AC double deckers, although in the images released by the Special Chief Secretary for Urban Development Arvind Kumar, the Switch logo in the front of the bus was visibly covered up. Each bus costs ₹2.16 crore and comes with an annual maintenance contract (AMC) for 7 years. With a carrying capacity of 65 passengers plus the driver, each bus has a range of 150km and can be charged in 120 to 150 minutes.
The buses were flagged off by Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development KT Rama Rao along with Chief Secretary A Santhi Kumari, Chevella MP G Ranjith Reddy and Chandrayanagutta MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi.
An old Double Decker Bus in Hyderabad from the year 2000 running on Route 7Z from Zoo Park to Secunderabad via High Court. Photo shared by Shakerhussain on Twitter.
These buses will primarily run along the Hyderabad Street Circuit as part of the the Hyderabad Formula ePrix to be held on 11 February in and around the vicinity of the newly built Telangana Secretariat, Tank Bund, Necklace Street, Paradise and Nizam College. After that, they will be used for tourism along a heritage circuit in the city.
The Forumla ePrix and Hyderabad Street Circuit
The Hyderabad ePrix is part of the 2022-2023 Formula E Championship. The Formula E championship is a single-seat motorsport championship for electric cars and this will be the first edition to be held in India.
The Hyderabad Street Circuit (BBTD/Wikimedia Commons)
The Hyderabad Street Circuit is a race track laid along the roads of the city. Two designs were prepared, one by PPE Racing and the other by Driven International. The second one was chosen while the former was criticised for its rather phallic design with one racer allegedly saying it resembled a dildo.
Interestingly, in 2018, the Formula One Powerboat Championship (F1H2O) was held in the new capital of Hyderabad’s former state, Amaravati.
Telangana Mobility Valley
KT Rama Rao announced that Telangana would soon see investments of ₹3,000 crore in the mobility sector, in addition to the ₹8,000 crore already secured by the state in the segment. A new mobility cluster, named the Telangana Mobility Valley would be established for electric vehicles with a focus on manufacturing, engineering, research and development for vehicle manufacturing as well as cell chemistry, hydrogen fuel cells and component manufacturers. Currently, research and development in the EV sector is primarily based out of Bengaluru in neighbouring Karnataka while manufacturing is concentrated in the neighbouring Krishnagiri district and Chennai, both in Tamil Nadu.
Featured Image: Hyderabad’s new Switch EiV22 Double Deckers (Image tweeted by Arvind Kumar)
The Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking has decided to put up an exhibit at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival. According to a note shared by the undertaking, the Kala Ghoda Festival Committee made a request to the undertaking which in turn set up the exhibit at Cross Maidan near Churchgate.
BEST’s Notice about the Kala Ghoda Exhibit
The exhibit is available for public viewing at Azad Cross Maidan near Churchgate from 4 February to 12 February 2023 from 10 am to 10 pm. It showcases the history and heritage of the undertaking.
BEST also shared some pictures of the exhibit on their Twitter and Facebook pages.
The entrance to BEST’s exhibit where a cutout of a conductor greets visitors along with a model of a double decker bus.Models of BEST’s horse-drawn tram, double decker tram and double decker bus on display.
In its notice, BEST also reminded the public about the BEST Museum that is open to all in the third floor of the administrative building at Anik Depot. The museum is open from 7 am to 3.30 pm on Monday and from 9 am to 5 pm from Tuesday to Sunday. There is no charge to visit the museum.
Featured Image: The Kala Ghoda Horse Statue (Pradeep717/Wikimedia Commons)
While I admit upfront that this has nothing to do with buses or public transport, it does have something to do with one of every bus fans’ favourite brands. This news, while reported in 2016 has been doing the rounds lately on the interwebz and I thought I’d write on it.
Let’s take a walk down memory lane to the 1970s when something interesting took place. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), also known as North Korea was establishing diplomatic contacts with western nations and among them was the Kingdom of Sweden. The DPRK ordered 1,000 Volvo 144 cars from the Volvo Car Corporation (then part of Volvo AB), which were delivered in 1974.
The Volvo 144 was the first in the 140 series of saloons (or sedans) and made its first appearance in 1966. The nomenclature indicated that it was the first series and was a four-door saloon with a four-cylinder engine.
While the North Koreans took delivery of the cars, they never paid for them. The Swedes meanwhile have not clarified what all was included as part of the trade deal. The sale was insured through the Swedish Export Credit Agency (EKN) which stepped in and ensured that Volvo Cars did not go bankrupt. However, the debt on the sale, along with interest had accumulated to US $328 million in 2016. That’s roughly ₹2,680 crores, based on the current (2023) exchange rates! The Swedish Export Credits Guarantee Board sends a reminder to the DPRK government every six months.
It is unknown whether the original deal included spare parts but Volvo Heritage believes that due to the bulk purchase by North Korea, the 144 was common across the world and thus getting spares from elsewhere would be easier. However, the cars are rare these days, and when seen, usually act as taxicabs.
In 2016, the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang tweeted out a picture of a Volvo 144, captioned Still going strong. One of the Volvo’s from yr 1974 still unpaid for by DPRK. Running as taxi in Chongjin w almost half million km on odo!
Still going strong. One of the Volvo’s from yr 1974 still unpaid for by DPRK. Running as taxi in Chongjin w almost half million km on odo! (Caption as tweeted by the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang)
The lack of payment for these 1,000 cars prompted Soviet diplomats to label it as the “largest car theft in human history.” Imagine being a Communist nation in the 1970s and mucking up so bad that the Soviet Union mocks you. I know.
Founded in 1927 as the automobile division of SKF, the Volvo Cars Corporation or Volvo Cars remained a part of the Volvo Group or Volvo AB until 1999 when it was spun off as an independent company, with both of them sharing the Volvo trademark. Volvo Cars was acquired by the Ford Motor Company as part of its Premier Automotive Group that included Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo. With the sale of Aston Martin to a group of American investors and Jaguar and Land Rover to Tata Motors of India, Ford divested Volvo Cars to China’s Zhejiang Geely, better known as Geely. Volvo Cars’ history is very similar to American telecommunications manufacturer Motorola that split in 2011 to form Motorola Solutions and Motorola Mobility, the latter of which was acquired by Google and then eventually Chinese red-chip firm (listed in Hong Kong) Lenovo.
Geely also owns several other prominent European automobile brands, such as Polestar, Lynk and the iconic British brand Lotus, along with the London EV Company (formerly the London Taxi Corporation), which is known to manufacture the iconic black cabs seen in London.
Well, that’s all from me this time.
If you’re interested in another international incident that was funny, look no further from North Korea’s backyard, Russia. In 2018, a group of Russians in Vladivostok donned a cardboard cut-out shaped like a bus to cross a bridge that was off-limits to pedestrians. You can read about it here:
In a bid to automate and mechanise certain functions while putting older buses of the fleet to better use, the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) has converted an old bus into a moving high-pressure cleaning system.
Bus stations of the Corporation’s Rainbow bus rapid transit system (Rainbow BRTS) were earlier cleaned manually by sweeping them. The plan to to change the process was initiated by Babasaheb Mulani, a bench fitter from the Pimpri Depot under the guidance of depot manager Bhaskar Dahatonde and DME Rajkumar Mane.
The vehicle was used to clean BRTS shelters in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad during the ongoing G20 summit.
PMPML shared a video explaining the new system to their social media accounts. Below is the video from their Youtube channel and the wonderful caption from their Instagram account.
Innovative BRT Bus stop cleaning system by PMPML
Until date BRT bus stops of PMPML were majorly cleaned using normal mechanisms like sweeping, but to thoroughly clean every corner of a bus stop PMPML came up with an idea to convert an old bus into a moving high pressure cleaning system.
Due to resolute efforts from Babasaheb Mulani (Bench Fitter) under the guidance of Bhaskar Dahatonde (Pimpri Depot Manager) and Rajkumar Mane (DME) this idea came into existence and was successfully executed.
As the cleaning performance of this innovation was excellent, this bus was also sent to clean BRT bus stops and routes during the G20 Summit.
PMPML heartily appreciates this innovative creation and ideation by our employees.
पीएमपीएमएलचे बीआरटी बस थांबे सध्यापर्यंत फक्त झाडून साफ केले जात होते, परंतु बसस्थानकाचा प्रत्येक कोपरा पूर्णपणे स्वच्छ करण्यासाठी पीएमपीएमएलमधील कर्मचाऱ्यांना जुन्या बसला चालत्या फिरत्या उच्च दाबाच्या स्वछता प्रणालीमध्ये रूपांतरित करण्याची कल्पना सुचली.
हि कल्पना सत्यात उतरविण्यासाठी पिंपरी आगाराचे आगार व्यवस्थापक भास्कर दहातोंडे व पिंपरी आगार अभियंता राजकुमार माने यांच्या मार्गदर्शनाखाली बेंच फिटर बाबासाहेब मुलाणी यांनी आटोकाट प्रयत्न करून टाकाऊ साहित्या पासून सर्व्हिस व्हॅन मध्ये ‘फिरते वॉशिंग सेंटर’ तयार केले व त्याचे यशस्वी प्रात्यक्षिक घेतले.
या प्रणालीच्या अत्यंत उत्कृष्ट कामगिरीमुळे जी२० परिषदेदरम्यान बीआरटी बस थांबे व मार्गांची स्वछता करण्यासाठी या यंत्रणेचा वापर करण्यात आला.
आमच्या कर्मचार्यांच्या या नाविन्यपूर्ण निर्मितीचे आणि कल्पनेचे पीएमपीएमएलतर्फे मनस्वी अभिनंदन.
PMPML
The vehicle is fitted with a 1 horsepower (1 HP) motor, a 2,000 litre Sintex tank and a service pipe. The bus is then driven to the bus stop and pressure washed.
According to Shri Mulani, Dahatonde, and Mane, the plan is convert older buses of the depot to such cleaning vehicles and use it to keep bus stops across the twin cities clean. A trial was conducted at the Akurdi BRTS stop. Passengers too appreciated the clean bus stop.
The rear of the PMPML Washing Service Van of the Pimpri Depot (Screengrab from PMPML’s video)
