Author: Srikanth

BEST? Bus! Vroom, *pulls bellpull* Hi, I'm Srikanth. I'm a freelance media fellow with a fascination for buses, toll plazas, fire trucks and drones.

It’s Official! BEST’s Chalo Bus Will Soon Ply Across Atal Setu

Transit fans and Infra fans can rejoice now as the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) undetaking’s Chalo Bus premium service will now ply across the Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Trans-Harbour Link or Atal Setu, India’s longest bridge connecting Sewree (Shivdi) to Nhava Sheva across the mainland. This will mark BEST’s foray into connecting the Ulwe side of Navi Mumbai, which it has hitherto not touched.

Route number S-145 will connect Konkan Bhavan on the Sion-Panvel Highway at CBD Belapur to World Trade Centre near Backbay Depot. The bus will run via Sagar Sangam (near the NMMC Head Office, also known as White House by some locals at Killa/Kille Gaon), Targhar, Ulwe, Aai Tarumata, Kamadhenu Oaklands, then take the Atal Setu and Eastern Freeway before touching Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT), Churchgate Station (Ahilyabai Holkar Chowk) and then terminate at World Trade Centre at Cuffe Parade. At this point I don’t know if the bus will have a stop at Mantralaya, which falls between the last two stops.

Four buses will be operated on this route, of which two will travel in the CBD Belapur to World Trade Centre direction in the morning and two in the reverse direction in the evening.

You can book your seats with the Chalo app on Android and iOS.

Apart from this, a report in Mid-Day by Rajendra Aklekar also states that BEST plans to run regular services in the Ulwe belt.

Chalo conducted a trial run with bus enthusiasts including Shubham Padave and Gandharva Purohit.

Featured Image: Chalo Bus on Atal Setu by Shubham Padve (used with permission)

To know more about how the Chalo Bus operates and how to book tickets, do read Gandharva’s article: A Review Of BEST’s Chalo Bus On Day One

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Put On Your Creative Hats For #RoadSafetyMonth

Hi there, sorry for not being too active here. There are some issues with the blog and a few posts that have been published are not visible because, well, let us not get into it.

Anyway, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) of the Government of India is observing 15 January to 14 February 2024 as Road Safety Month. As part of this, MoRTH and various other agencies, Central, State, Civic and Private are running a slew of activities to raise awareness on Road Safety.

Among these, the Centre of Excellence for Road Safety (CoERS), at IIT Madras, headed by Professor Venkatesh Balasubramanian has organised a series of events. Two of these events were local – a flashmob at Phoenix MarketCity, Velachery and a 5K run within the serene IIT campus – while the remaining three are pan-India events that are open to participation till 29 February 2024.

The first among these is the Road Safety Essay Challenge. This is open to all school students in classes 6 to 10 across India. You have to write a 500 word essay with the theme Steering Towards Safety: My Vision for Safer Roads.

The second is the Road Safety Photography Competition. This is open to all Indians. There are three themes that participants can choose, namely My Life, My Safety; Commit to Safe Transit; and Capturing Safer Infrastructure. You can submit photographs that are unedited and have been clicked in the last six months.

The third one is the Short Film Making Competition. This too is open to all residents of India. The theme is Road Safety by Young Actors. The film duration can be between 5 and 10 minutes, and can be in any Indian language with English subtitles.

All three competitions have prizes for the winners so do take part in them.

Do visit the official page on CoERS’ website to know the complete details and submission guidelines as well as the submission forms. The link is :
Road Safety Month organised by the Centre of Excellence for Road Safety, RBG Labs, IIT Madras

You can also watch Professor Venkatesh Balasubramanian talk on why raising awareness on road safety is important:

That’s all from me for this time. Till then, let’s make our roads safer. Stay safe, and happy traveling. Let’s raise awareness so that we’re #SaferTogether

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Return Of The King: BEST Launches Electric Double Decker on Andheri-SEEPZ Route

Bringing cheer to commuters in Andheri (East), the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking launched its second electric double decker route in the suburbs on A-415 connecting Agarkar Chowk (Andheri Railway Station East) to SEEPZ.

This densely populated route was earlier served by double decker 415 prior to the old fleet being scrapped. For a long time, the only AC bus between Agarkar Chowk and SEEPZ was BEST’s AS-422 that went up to Mulund Check Naka. In late 2016, when BEST was experimenting with its fares, it launched AS-415 (using the Cerita fleet) that mirror the regular 415 and was a sleeper hit. Subsequently, BEST ran its Tata Starbus Hybrid fleet as BKC-16 on this route.

This was one of the most important corridors for double deckers, hence they remained mostly with Majas Depot, except towards the end when they were transferred to the Marol Depot. The new electric buses operate out of the Kurla Depot as charging infrastructure isn’t in place at Marol or Majas yet. Double Deckers in the suburbs currently operate out of either Kurla, Dharavi or Kalakilla Depots.

Futher, the Metro line (Mumbai Metro 1/Blue Line/Reliance Metro) was also built keeping in mind the height requirement for double decker buses underneath it. Judging by the success, I’m guessing BEST did not run into (quite literally) any of the height issues that A-310 is currently facing at the Nehru Nagar junction atop the Santacruz Chembur Link Road.

BEST’s third AC double decker in the suburbs meanwhile runs on route A-332. This route connects Agarkar Chowk to Kurla Depot and travels via Andheri-Ghatkopar Link Road till Saki Naka where it takes a turn onto Andheri-Kurla Road via Jari Mari. This journey should be interesting since amid the top-angled view of all the slums en route, once would also get to witness magnificent landings and take-offs at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport. However, the bus did run into the same height issue as A310 due to which it has been truncated at Kurla Depot instead of Kurla Railway Station (West).

A-415 meanwhile has run into its own set of controversy, over standees on the bus. Reportedly, as per the rules laid out by the Regional Transport Office (RTO), standees are not allowed on the upper deck of a double decker. While I personally do remember seeing standees on the upper deck of a bus, that was nearly two decades ago when 266 from Andheri Station (West) to Swami Samarth Nagar (Extension) had double deckers. A notice near the rear of the bus, printed on paper has been posted, prohibiting standees on both decks with conductors refusing to board more passengers if all seats are occupied. This has understandably irked people, with some asking if the new buses were delicate.

Let’s hope BEST is able to sort out its issues quickly and bring back normalcy on the city’s roads.

Featured Image: Two A-415s crossing each other at Chakala Signal (Western Express Highway Metro Station on Blue Line 1 and Gundavali on Red Line 7). Picture via Sahil Pednekar on Twitter.

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BEST Launches AC Double-Deckers on Bandra-Kurla Route, Runs Into Trouble Due To Height Issues

Giving commuters in the suburbs a reason to cheer, the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking finally launched its much anticipated electric Double Decker fleet of Switch EiV 22 buses on route 310 (A-310) between Bandra Railway Station (East) and Kurla Railway Station (West) via the Bandra Kurla Complex. This sector was earlier services by the regular double-deckers on Route 310.

However, a slight snag affected the services resulting in several changes. The height of the old buses stood at 4.38m while the height of the new bus stands at 4.75m. This is problematic since all buses bound for Kurla Railway Station (West) have to take a U-turn under the Santacruz-Chembur Link Road’s double-decker flyover to reach the station.

BEST has decided to truncate the double deckers’ route at the MTNL Telephone Exchange while regular single-decker buses will continue on till Kurla. This height issue is expected to affect other routes as well, such as 313 between Santacruz Bus Station and Kurla Railway Station (West) and 332 between Agarkar Chowk (Andheri Station East) and Kurla Railway Station (West).

Interestingly, Mumbai’s suburban railway network hit a similar snag in 2016. When the Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai sent the first AC train prototype, it was found to be 4.335m tall as opposed to the maximum permissible height of 4.25m due to several low-lying older bridges on the Central Railway line.

What will BEST do to solve this issue? That remains to be seen.

Update: It seems BEST has asked for a traffic signal to be installed at the junction of SCLR and SG Barve Marg so buses can directly take a right turn towards Kurla Station. This could potentially be problematic as the entire stretch of the road from the Eastern Express Highway to the Western Express Highway is being made signal-free. A signal earlier existed here when SCLR first opened up in 2014. It was a bottleneck as the junction also housed a water tank and pump-house on the median. This was later relocated in 2015 and the junction shut.

Prior to the construction of the SCLR towards the East of this junction, the original SG Barve Marg traveled from Kurla Depot signal on LBS Marg and turned towards Kurla Station. A flyover was built over LBS Marg between 2007 and 2012 and the road was re-aligned towards Kurla East, thus turning SG Barve Marg into a branch road.

In case you are wondering how buses access Kurla Railway Station (West) from Kurla West, here is a video by Gandharva Purohit that shows exactly how it works.

Featured Image: BEST Double Decker taking a U-turn under SCLR towards Kurla (Dharam Tiwari, via Twitter)

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PM e-Bus Sewa Is Here; 10,000 Electric Buses To Be Deployed On PPP Model Across India

In what can only be considered a big boost for public transport, clean air and people’s pockets, the Cabinet approved the PM e-Bus Sewa on 16 August 2023.

Under this scheme, the Centre plans to deploy 10,000 electric buses across the country. According to the release on the Press Information Bureau, the buses will be deployed under the public-private partnership (PPP) model across 169 cities while the infrastructure will be upgraded in 181 cities under Green Urban Mobility Initiatives (GUMI). The estimated cost of the PM e-Bus Sewa is expected to be ₹57,613 crore and is expected to generate over 45,000 direct jobs.

All cities with a population above three lakh (as per the 2011 census) along with the capital cities of Union Territories, Northeastern region and the hill states will be covered with priority being given to those cities that currently do not have an organised bus service.

The programme is divided into two segments:

Segment A involves augmenting city bus services in 169 cities along with providing support for the associated infrastructure, upgradation of depots, establishment of substations, etc.

Segment B will cover GUMI across 181 cities. Here, initiatives such as bus priority, multimodal transit, NCMC-based payment systems, and charging infrastructure will be provided.

States, cities and the parastatals will be responsible for making payments to the private operators while the Centre will provide subsidies to the extent provided under the scheme.

This scheme is great news for India as it will impact not just public transport, but a lot of things. For starters, it will give a huge fillip to the manufacturing and the supply-chain ecosystem of buses, their components, and behind-the-meter infrastructure. The increased availability of buses will also change how people perceive commuting and how they actually commute.

One good news that merged right away was Volvo’s entry into the electric bus segment in India. Volvo India stated that it would consider entering the sector under either the Volvo or Eicher brand.

While the government has done a lot in improving the electricity supply system with an increase in renewable energy including solar, wind and even hydel power, it needs to scale up on nuclear power.

Do read this article written by me for Swarajya in 2018: India Needs An Electric-Vehicle Policy; Here’s How It Can Go About It. The government seems to be doing what I had proposed five years ago.

Also, do read Aashish Chandorkar’s article from 2016, on How Indian Cities Can Shift From Diesel To Electric Buses for it explains economies of scale very well.

The shift from the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM, with a jurm of a logo) to the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) to Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India (FAME) to now PM e-Bus Sewa has been quite fantastic.

Featured Image: Image by macrovector on Freepik

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Spotted: Open Deck Switch Double Decker On Trials In Chennai

In an interesting development, an open-deck doubled-decker bus manufactured by Ashok Leyland’s Switch Mobility was spotted near Marina Beach in Chennai.

The Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) had announced that it was considering bringing back double-deckers on the city’s roads in July 2023. Double Deckers were originally introduced in the 1970s and ran on the High Court (Broadway) to Tambaram Route (most likely 21G) but wound up soon due to poor patronage. The Institute of Road Transport, Chennai (IRT) which is responsible for procuring buses in the state has begun the process of looking at different options.

It was reported that these buses would likely run on the Marina, which is where trials were conducted.

The bus seems to be an open-deck variant of Switch Mobility’s EiV22 that is currently in service in Mumbai and Hyderabad. Only Hyderabad, however has the open-deck variant in service, although it looks vastly different from the one that was seen in Chennai. Given that Switch is rapidly making changes to its models based on commuter feedback, this could be due to that. You can read more about the double-deckers in Hyderabad here: Double Decker Buses Return To Hyderabad After Two Decades, City Of Pearls Becomes First To Launch Electric Version

You can read a full-fledged review of the Switch Electric Double-Decker here: Rebirth Of An Icon! Mumbai Gets Hope With Brand New Electric Double-Decker Bus

Chennai is currently among the few metro cities in India without any electric buses. At the same time, after the Volvo fleet was scrapped, the new Ashok Leyland fleet is a fledgling and not enough for the city. You can read a review of these buses here: A Quick Review Of MTC’s AC Buses

Featured Image: Screengrab of the Switch Double Decker from Sun News’ Twitter

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Grand Exhibition Of BEST’s Antique And Operation Development Systems At BEST Museum In August

The Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking is organising a grand exhibition of its antique and operation-development systems at its Museum. The exhibition will be held from Saturday 5 August to Monday 7 August 2023 at the BEST Undertaking’s Museum located on the third floor of the administrative block at the Anik Depot.

Entry will be free to all and special buses will be pressed into service from Rani Lakshmi Chowk (Sion) Bus Station and Kurla (East) Bus Station to Anik Depot.

The exhibition will be held to commerate the 76th anniversary of the merger of BEST under the Birhanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC/MCGM) with the Bandra Bus Company, then under the Bandra Municipal Committee in 1949.

BEST's notice on the Grand Exhibition
BEST’s notice on the Grand Exhibition

Special thanks to Shubham Padave for sharing this. That’s all from me for this time. Do take some time out over the weekend and checkout a part of Mumbai’s heritage.

Featured Image: BEST Museum’s entrance board (Ketaki Rangnekar/Google Maps)

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A Classic Double Decker Has Been Saved From Scrap, Will Now Be Preserved

In what can only be described as good news for both transit fans and history buffs alike, the Maharashtra Government has agreed to save one Bharat Stage 3 (BS3) Double Decker bus of the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking at the Anik Depot instead of scrapping it. This decision came from no less than the Chief Minister’s office. Apart from this, Dr Shrikant Shinde, Member of Parliament from Kalyan and son of CM Eknath Shinde has also promised to take up the matter.

As reported by Rajendra Aklekar for Mid-Day, this happened purely due to the initiative of three bus fans, particularly Shubham Padave, an IT professional from Mumbai with whom I have had the pleasure of interacting over Twitter in the past. Padave wrote to the BEST administration requesting them to preserve one bus. Since he did not get a satisfactory response, he took things a notch higher and directly wrote to the CM’s office and got a positive response.

The second bus fan is none other than Rupak Dhakate, whose posts in the past have been featured on this blog. Rupak was the ace photographer who snapped the glorious click of the bus chowky at Maharana Pratap Chowk in Mazagaon, helped bust the fake news that Oshiwara Depot was shutting down, and also created the amazing BEST Quarantine Challenge during the first lockdown in 2020. In 2020, Rupak started an initiative to ensure that at least one bus of every model is preserved at BEST’s museum at Anik. He rightly says that the double-decker bus is not just a bus but an emotion, and I cannot agree more with him.

The third bus fan is our very own Gandharva Purohit, who has written some really insightful posts on BESTpedia in the past. Don’t forget to read them here, if you haven’t already. Gandharva has made a great argument in favour of preserving heritage buses at BEST’s Museum at Anik on the lines of the London Transport Museum at Covent Garden, London. He also says that BEST can organise open-day events and sell souvenirs.

As of now, BEST has 12 of the new electric Switch double deckers and three open-top variants of the old fleet housed at the Colaba depot, and the remaining 19 of the classic double deckers are house at Marol and Dharavi. The Backbay, Kurla and Worli depots stopped housing double deckers when they were scrapped in 2020.

In 2021, Aklekar had reported on Mid-Day that the Manjusha Museum in Dharmasthala, Karnataka had paid ₹12 lakh for two double decker buses – ₹5 lakh for an open-top one and ₹7 lakh for a regular double decker – to be housed at the museum that houses over 8,000 artefacts.

Overall, this is a win for the transit heritage community. I personally feel that every city in India, especially the ones that got public transport right from the independence era should make a serious effort towards preserving older vehicles in museums to showcase the evolution of public transport to future generations.

That’s all from me this time.

Featured Image: Bus 4043 of the Dharavi Depot operating on Route C-42. Photo clicked by GP.Busfanning

Note to the mainstream media and Youtubers: The photograph featured above is copyright GP.Busfanning and has been used on BESTpedia with permission. Do not flick the image without permission from GP.Busfanning.

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How The Dutch KLPD Pioneered The Use Of Porsche 911s As Patrol Vehicles

Alright, this is yet another post not related to public transport, but I have in the past written about first responders. In fact, one of the long-pending article ideas is on what Indian Police officer’s utility belt should be.

When we Indians hear police and fancy cars, we usually think of the Dubai Police which is equipped with a wide variety of exotic and even concept cars including but not limited to Aston Martin, Bentley, Lambhorgini, Lexus, and of course the Lykan HyperSport (as destroyed by Brian and Dom in Furious 7) and W Motors’ Ghiath as well.

However, much before Dubai, the Korps landelijke politiediensten (KLPD; or National Police Services Corps) which was the former national police force in the Netherlands made use of luxury vehicles.

The story starts thus, that in the 1960s, motorways in the Netherlands saw a lot of accidents, mainly due to the absence of marked speed limits on roads. In order to combat this, the Highway Patrol division of the KLPD set out defining the requirements for a high-speed patrol vehicle. They had to be fast of course, they had to have a rear-engine, be able to accelerate and brake at the drop of a hat, and one very unique requirement was that they had to have an open top.

Attention turned towards the town of Zuffenhausen in Germany where the headquarters and factory of Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, known to most of us as just Porsche was located. The automobile manufacturer, who was winding up production on a well known model, the Porsche 356, ended up supplying the last ten cars of the model to the KLPD where they were the mainstay between 1962 and 1966.

In 1967, Porsche unveiled the Targa top variant of its flagship vehicle, the Porsche 911, and this caught the eye of the KLPD. The 911 was a hit with the law enforcement agency and remained a mainstay of its patrol units till 1996. A total of 507 Porsche vehicles, including the 356, 911, 914, 924 and 964 made their way into the agency’s motorpools, making it the largest historic Porsche police fleet in the world.

Each car was identifiable by it distinguished livery of orange and white with a single blue emergency light perched atop its A-pillar.

Now, very interestingly, all of these cars had open tops, hence the KLPD’s interest in the 911 only after the targa top was unveiled. The rationale for this? Officers were to be able to stand up in the car in order to direct traffic.

Another interesting thing to note was that the uniforms worn by officers driving these cars always included a distinctive orange helmet with safety goggles.

The livery has been since updated and now features blue and orange stripes and the uniform has a white and orange helmet.

Featured Image: A Porsche 911 being used by the KLPD (Oranje-Boom/Porsche Newsroom)

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Check Out The Heritage Themed AMTS Lal Darwaja Bus Station In Amdavad

The Amdavad Municipal Transport Service (AMTS)-run Lal Darwaja bus station, which was built in 1955 at the heart of the city was shut down in 2021 to undergo a major renovation in order to match up with its surroundings, the historic city of Old Ahmedabad which was designated a UNESCO World Heritage City in 2017.

Originally proposed in the 2000s under the Walled City Revitalisation Project by then Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the project’s plans saw multiple changes including the addition of administrative offices in the upper level before the plan was shelved. Under the Vijay Rupani government, it finally received a green signal along with a budgetary sanction of ₹5.72 crore in 2017 but was delayed due to lack of approvals from the Archeological Survey of India (ASI), whose approval was necessary due to the presence of several monuments within a 2,000 metre radius.

The foundation stone was laid on 8 April 2017 by Rupani. After numerous delays, the project got ahead in 2021 and was to be complete by 2022 but was finally inaugurated by Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel on 5 June 2023.

Lal Darwaja Bus Station (DeshGujarat/Twitter)
Lal Darwaja Bus Station (DeshGujarat/Twitter)

Spread over 11,583 square metres, the bus station is a two-storeyed structure with lighting to match the aesthetics. A proper drainage system and reinforced cement concrete (RCC) roads were also laid. The stone –Bansi Pahadpur stone – for the building have come from Bharatpur in Rajasthan which helps in lowering the temperature inside the bus terminal. Seating arrangements involve decorative bus shelters. LED display-based Passenger Information Systems (PIS) have also been installed. Facilities for administrative purposes such as a control room, a meeting hall as well as solar power have also been set up. 35 closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras for security have been installed. The revamped terminal has a capacity of 503 buses with nearly 80 routes touching it. Nearly 1.95 lakh passengers are expected to use Lal Darwaza daily.

The tiles in the bus station have been carved to resemble the Siddi Saiyyed Jali which is the unofficial symbol of the city. The pillars are round and have been designed in the style of those present at havelis while lighting is provided by lanterns and railings are leaf-patterned.

The building is six metres tall and permission from the ASI has been secured to increase the height to 12 metres if expansion is required.

You can watch a walk through of the bus terminal (in Hindi) on YouTube thanks to Youtuber DeepsBeenHere:

Featured Image: Front facade of the Lal Darwaja Bus Station tweeted by Bhupendra Patel.

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