In a bid to make travel by buses a little more pleasant, the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking has banned loud music and conversations in buses after a deluge of complaints from passengers.
A notification was issued on 24 April in the regard and under the new rules all passengers watching videos, listening to music, or having conversations on their phone must use headphones. The undertaking has also said that passengers causing inconvenience can have action taken against them under section 38/112 of the Bombay Police Act of 1951.
BEST has announced that a notification regarding this will be displayed on all buses while all staff (including those on wet-lease buses) will be made aware of it.
While the move is undoubtedly a good one, especially for those listening to music or watching videos, it makes limited sense to those having phone calls. Unless the phone is on speakerphone, using a phone regularly shouldn’t be too loud except when the passenger is shouting into the phone. At the same time, due to the preponderance of noise-cancellation headphones, people using headphones can be louder than those without them.
On the plus side, passengers can now listen to the noise made by the bus itself, for some of them (especially a lot of the electric buses) are extremely noisy.
Featured Image: BEST prohibits loud phone conversations, audio and video on mobile phones on the buses, mandates use of headphones by Srikanth Ramakrishnan. (P.S: It took me 20 minutes to make this image using Microsoft PowerPoint)
