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.

In Case You Missed It: A Bajaj QUTE Was Spotted Operating As An Auto-Rickshaw in Andheri

A little over four years ago, I had attended Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make In India Week where among many things, I saw a few interesting vehicles. Among these, I saw Scania’s ethanol-blend Bio-fuel bus that was operational with Nagpur Mahanagar Parivahan Limited (NMPL) and subsequently also with the Kadamba Transport Corproation (KTC) in Panaji, Goa, Volvo’s 8400 B7RLE Diesel-CNG Hybrid bus that was trial with the Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport (NMMT) undertaking and a the world’s largest dumper from Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML). Note: A dumper is not the same as a dump-truck.

Read more: From #MakeInIndia to Made in India

I also saw an air-conditioned Minibus from Force Motors, albeit with fully-sealed windows which I said would be great for feeder services to metro stations. And just like I said, similar buses ended up being used by BEST three years as feeder buses. Here is a picture of the bus that I saw in 2016.

MakeInIndia-Force-Motors-Minivan

While BEST didn’t get these exact buses, it did get similar buses.

Read more: BEST’s New AC Buses Are A Delight To Travel On

Now, the most interesting thing I saw there was the Bajaj Qute. Note: It does look cute.

Powered by a 200cc engine that can produce an output of 20bhp, the Qute is classified by the government as a “quadricycle” and therefore can only be used to replace auto-rickshaws.

MakeInIndia-Bajaj-Qute

This is the picture of the Qute that I clicked in 2016. The Qute has received intense criticism, mostly from Bajaj’s peers in the auto industry, especially Piaggio which also manufactures auto-rickshaws. Piaggio in fact wanted the Qute to be deferred by at least two-three years (in 2013) in order to provide a level playing field for auto-rickshaw manufacturers. Others in the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) too lambasted the Qute for myriad reasons, from its weight to its emissions.

However, in late February this year, I was mildly surprised when I boarded one of BEST’s mini-buses at Andheri Station (West). In the middle of the sea of auto-rickshaws, I saw a Qute, with a board inside it saying ऑटो रिक्षा and a sticker indicating that it ran on CNG. While I couldn’t see where the fare-meter was, the vehicle was occupied.

Here is the Qute that I spotted at Andheri.

Bajaj-Qute-Andheri-Station-BESTpedia

When I saw it, I was excited and quickly whipped out my phone and clicked a photo. And naturally, I tweeted it out within minutes.

Let’s hope more such Qutie-pies hit the road soon!

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Featured Image: A blue Bajaj Qute, Bajaj Auto

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BMTC Finally Starts Cashless Ticketing, Uses UPI-Based QR Codes For Transactions

Last month I wrote on how we needed to look at changing our ways of transacting in order to reduce the risk of contamination using physical currency. One of the points I had made was to target the transit sector in order to get people opt for cashless transit.

Many of of us expected the 2016 demonetisation to be the catalyst for a shift to cashless methods of travel, sadly it did not take off well. A year later, the situation was no different in adoption of digital payment systems in public transport.

In September 2018, the Central government finally announced the launch of the ‘One Nation, One Transport Card’, a rebadged version of the previous government’s long-dead More Card project. The National Common Mobility Card (NCMC), was finally launched on 5 March 2019 (also my birthday) but is still being rolled out and as of now is only available on the Delhi Metro.

Older readers of BESTpedia would remember that I had spoken to BMTC officials in 2016 on their Intelligent Transport System (ITS) and the impending release of a prepaid card for buses (similar to what Mumbai’s BEST has). While the smart cards were never a part of the ITS, they were due to be released by the end of 2016 but that did not happen.

The Times of India on 27 May reported that BMTC would implement a new measure to enable cashless transit in its buses. While initially implemented on 70 buses, it is now being expanded to 1,000 buses of the 3,500 buses that are currently on the streets.

The cashless ticketing system, however is not what most of us expected.

Each bus is equipped with a quick response code (QR Code) that is compliant with BharatQR and uses the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) to make payments. Passengers can use any UPI-based app such as Paytm, Google Pay, or PhonePe to complete the transaction and once the transaction is done, the conductor issues a ticket.

Here is an image of the conductor with the QR Code handing around his neck.

It is important to note here that the QR code based payment isn’t direct cashless ticketing, but rather a cashless transaction after which the ticket is issued manually. It isn’t similar to the QR code based ticketing used by the Indian Railways using the UTS app, or by Metro Rail systems in India. The latter uses QR codes on phone screens or paper tickets that are scanned at the turnstiles rather than the commuter scanning them with their phones.

While this is a good move in the interim, it would be good to see BMTC implement a full-fledged card-based payment system, on the lines of the NCMC.

The unintended side-effects of this move

The QR code idea, however has its merits. The direct consequence would be more people adopting UPI as a payment method over physical cash systems. Commuters using UPI would mean that anyone remotely connected to the BMTC network –from a food vendor at the bus station to a tea stall frequented by staff – would start accepting UPI as a payment method. The entire “Local Economy” would end up making use of it over time.

All in all, this is a much-needed push by BMTC. The next stop would be a complete integration on to the NCMC so that we can go truly cashless. Who knows, the next big thing may be transcos accepting USSD-based payments as well. Alternatively, BMTC needs to push for app-based payments, similar to what Ridlr offers for BEST where a user purchases a ticket with the app which in turn generates a four to six digit number. The commuter tells the number to the conductor, who validates it with the ETM.

BMTC finally goes cashless, and how.

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Another Visual Treat, BEST Midi-Bus Snapped On Sea Link

If you, like me (and several others) are still drooling over my last post of BEST’s mini-buses parked at Oshiwara Depot, here is another visual treat for you.

After a gap of nearly three years, a BEST bus was snapped on the Bandra Worli Sea Link!

Clicked by user Instasnapper, this bus is a Tata Marcopolo CNG midi-bus belonging to the Mumbai Central (CN) depot that is owned and operated by SMT ATPL Associates (marked by SAA next to the depot code).

I presume that this bus was on emergency duty, similar to the one spotted heading to Badlapur earlier this month.

The last time BEST had any buses on the Sea Link was prior to 2017. While several other routes existed, only three of them ran from 2014 till BEST’s eventual cancellation of AC services in 2017. These were A-74Express from Oshiwara Depot to NSCI Worli (Lotus), A-75 Express from Hiranandani Powai to NSCI Worli and A-76Express from Gorai Depot to NSCI Worli. All of them used the Cerita fleet (Purple Faeries struggling to climb the incline on the sea link) while A-74Express briefly used the Volvo fleet when it went from Oshiwara Depot to Colaba Depot (AS-4 always went from Oshiwara Depot to Backbay Depot but via Mahim). A non-AC bus 33Ltd with the same destinations as the regular 33 from Goregaon Bus Station to Pandit Paluskar Chowk (Opera House) was experimented with in 2010 according to the Hindustan Times report.

Well. That’s all from my side for today. Do check back on the blog for more!

Like I said in my last post, the current situation has made things difficult for many of us. Do consider supporting me on Patreon!

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Featured image: Bandra Worli Sea Link from an A-74 Express (Photographed by Srikanth Ramakrishnan on Motorola Moto G)

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A Fabulous View Of Oshiwara Depot With Mini-Buses Parked

At the start of the month, I put up a post on BEST’s new mini-bus fleet visible from Google Earth. Here’s a visual treat for you of the same at Oshiwara Depot, this time clicked from one of the high-rises in the vicinity.

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Aaj ki shaam ka rang hi kuch alag hai!

A post shared by Abhijeet Sawant (@abhijeetsawant73) on

In the above image you can see the Oshiwara depot (full of them red postvans), with the Goregaon Depot on the extreme right-hand side. In front of both depots is the majestic Goregaon Metro station on Line 2 of the Mumbai Metro.

On the left-hand side, you can see the Oshiwara River along with what looks like a bridge being built across it. Google Earth shows that the river has been widened at the location in the question between 2018 and 2020 and this construction on the river did not exist as recent as October 2019. However, going by both Google Earth and this image, it looks like a two lane road or promenade may be built over it.

This picture was clicked by singer Abhijeet Sawant. Sawant was the winner of the first season of Indian Idol in 2004-2005 (though the runner up Amit Sana was more popular). Presumably Sawant lives in the apartment behind the depot; the area is home to a lot of film stars. Incidentally Abhijeet Bhattacharya, known mononymously as Abhijeet also lives in the vicinity, and is the President of the Annual Lokhanwala Durgotsav that takes place at Lokhandwala.

While I shall trawl the interwebz for more such pictures, the rest of you lot can enjoy this splendid for the time being.

An interesting thing to note that BEST’s Volvo fleet is still housed at the Oshiwara Depot, albeit at the far end now (just outside the frame in this picture), as per the latest Google Earth update, which is from 30 January 2020. The buses seem to have gathered dust as they look visibly brown compared to the bright red from October last year.

On that note, I shall end this post, but since we are talking of Abhijeet Sawant, do listen to his song Lafzon Mein.

A closing line: The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has left many of us in a financially awkward position. I’d request you to back me up on Patreon. While I agree it is in United States Dollars ($) and not Indian Rupees (₹), I’m looking at an alternative as well, maybe PayU or RazorPay or Instamojo. But till then, Patreon seems to be the best option. I will add that there are more articles lined up for readers, including on Pune’s electric buses, Mumbai’s water transport and more.

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Silver Lining: We Saw Development Later, We’re Not Stuck With COBOL

As the ongoing Wuhan Virus pandemic goes on a rampage, the state of New Jersey in the United States has a peculiar problem. Governor Phil Murphy at a press conference earlier said that the state needs volunteers who possess “Cobalt” programming skills. He was talking of course of COBOL.

Common Business Oriented Language, or COBOL was a programming language introduced in 1959 as a way to write computer programmes for people who didn’t posses an aptitude for coding but had a reasonable command over their English. Of course, I studied COBOL in 2011 in Coimbatore in a class where not everyone knew English. But then, we’re a nation of non-native English speakers.

In a blog post for Coding Horror, Jeff Atwood stated that in 2009, around 220 billion lines of COBOL existed. That’s a crazy amount of COBOL programs (considering the fact that COBOL programmes are way longer than their equivalents in other conventional languages). COBOL systems handled millions of transactions, connected mobile phones, transported shipping containers and controlled air traffic! This is as recent as 11 years ago.

In fact, in 2017, a firm named Expeditors based out of Seattle, Washington was hiring COBOL developers to run a logistics platform!

This kind of Legacy Tech, would have cost a lot in investment and would have cost a lot more to upgrade at a later stage.

Now, to be honest, getting hold of a COBOL programmer in India isn’t that difficult. Several universities had COBOL till the as far as five years ago.

The point is, COBOL and also Fortran are extremely outdated languages, thus making it difficult to provide upgrades to features. Any new feature would have cost heavily in hardware upgrades. Let’s be glad, we got too the scene a little later.

Note: This was meant to be a much longer post but kept getting delayed so I put it out as it is.

Featured image: Cobol by Yvan Scher

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Spotted: BEST Bus En Route To Badlapur

Amidst the ongoing Wuhan Virus pandemic, BEST’s buses have been spotted heading for Badlapur.

While BEST has in the past run a few buses outside of its current jurisdiction (Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane and Mira-Bhayendar), the farthest route it ran was C-43, an express route from Kurla to Mumbra Station. Other transcos in the neighbourhood such as NMMT, TMT, VVMT have run their buses farther, with VVMT running a bus from Vasai to Mulund in the past.

A BEST bus belonging to the Bandra Depot was recently spotted by Tyronne D’Souza at Santacruz headed for Badlapur. While the route number said 00, the destination had बदलापुर written on the LED display.

Great job of BEST to extend its services this far out in the current situation. One hopes BEST might consider running this service full time once the lock down ends.

Here is a picture of the bus.

I guess that’s all from me right now. Stay home, stay safe.

Featured image: A-249 at Indian Oil Nagar during the lockdown.

P.SL Let’s hope BEST isn’t playing the Badlapur title track in these buses.

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With Google Earth’s New Imagery, Catch Some Mini-Buses On The Map!

So, a lot of you might know that I love to spend a lot of time on Google Earth. In the past, I’ve also written an article (for Swarajya) based on my observations on Google Earth ( UPA-Era National Highways Created Quite A Mess, Nitin Gadkari Needs To Fix This First) I’m not the only one. Colonel (Retired) Vinayak Bhat too has written many articles (for The Print) based on revelations from satellite imagery to reveal the nefarious deeds of our not-so-friendly neighbours Pakistan and China. You can read them here.

Readers of this blog may be aware that I have in the past even used Google Earth screenshots for a part of an article here: Explained: Why There Is No Direct AC Bus From Versova-Yari Road To Andheri Station

This article is to merely show that Google Earth has updated its satellite imagery of Mumbai. You now have a splendid view of construction of various metro corridors in the city, the Mumbai Trans-harbour Link (MTHL), the Coastal Road, along with several projects in Navi Mumbai including the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor and Bharat Mala and Sagar Mala projects.

The updates, with imagery from 30 January and 27 February 2020 also shows a lot of updates featuring BEST’s new fleet of mini-buses and midi-buses.

So let us start at Andheri. Below is a map of Andheri Station (West) where BEST’s initial flurry of mini-buses were launched. You can see a large number of buses parked at the main Andheri (West) Bus Station and another, albeit smaller lot further south at the Kumkum Bus Stop.

Andheri Station

No mini-buses were spotted at Agarkar Chowk, Andheri (East) because mini-buses there were launched in March.

Next up is Goregaon Station (East). As you can see from this image, there are many buses scattered all over Goregaon (East) Bus Station. Some are inside the bus station while some are outside. That’s because similar to Andheri, some buses have their bus stops outside the bus station.

Goregaon Station

While there is one mini-bus from Goregaon Bus Sation (West), that was launched in February and this image is from January. Also, do note, while Andheri and Goregaon stations may look similar, the elevated deck above the Harbour Line platforms at Andheri is much larger while the one at Goregaon is not continous.

And now, going a little to the East. Actually, much much to the east. This is Deonar Depot. As you can see from this image, these are not the Force Diesel mini-buses but the Tata CNG Midi-buses.

Deonar Depot

After Andheri (and Jogeshwari, both of which come under the Oshiwara Depot), Deonar seems to have got the largest lot of AC-buses. Deonar was earlier home to a huge lot of the Cerita fleet (Purple Faeries) along with Oshiwara, Magathane and Mulund.

Coming down south, we see Byculla Station (West) with a few midi-buses. These buses all belong to the Mumbai Central Depot.

Byculla Station

After Byculla, we can also see some of the same buses at Mahalakshmi Station (West). These are the buses that start from Byculla Station (West) and terminate at Breach Candy Hospital.

Mahalakshmi Station

Here is a snapshot from the Mumbai Central depot that is home to all the mini-buses in South Bombay. These buses ply in areas including Mumbai Central, Nagapada, Grant Road, Mahalakshmi, Breach Candy, Byculla, Sandhurst Road, Pandit Paluskar Chowk (Opera House), Vasantao Naik Chowk (Tardeo), Cumbala Hill, August Kranti Maidan, Haji Ali and Nana Chowk.

A little to the East, here is Wadala Station (West) and the Wadala Bridge monorail station.

Wadala Station

And the last picture is from Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Chowk/ Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj VastuSangrahalaya (formerly the Prince of Wales Museum). These are buses coming from either Ahilyabai Holkar Chowk/Churchgate Station or Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) and headed for Gateway of India or terminating at Dr. SPM Chowk.

Shyama Prasad Mukherjee chowk

Now, these are the only ones I’m posting here because there are the only ones where significant amount of red buses have been spotted. There are a few outside Dadar Station (East) but mostly on the road elsewhere. I can’t spot any outside Parel-Prabhadevi Station (West) or at Comrade P K Kurne Chowk (Doordarshan) due to the shadow from taller buildings in the vicinity.

So, till the next post. Have fun trawling through Google Earth.

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Satire: In Absence Of Depot, Metro 3 To Run BEST Buses In Tunnel

In a stunning revelation, it has been revealed that the current Maharashtra government may consider running buses in the tunnels of Mumbai Metro’s famed Line 3 project.

Without the controversial SEEPZ depot, the metro cannot be operational since it won’t have a place to park trains and carry out their maintenance. In order to sort this mess out, the government has decided that they will run BEST buses in the pair of 33.5km long tunnels.

Confirming the developments, an official on the condition of anonymity said that BEST had already been running buses in tunnels for almost a decade and this would be nothing new. “We’ve run buses on the Eastern Freeway, they’ve taken the flyover and the tunnels, what is new?”, he said.

He added that while initial proposals involve letting buses drive into the tunnels at the Sariput Nagar ramp in Jogeshwari, there are plans to set up additional ones at Bandra-Kurla Complex and the Airport as well. The government may also set up a crane to lower the bus into the tunnel so buses need not run only in them, he added. The plan is apparently to run the mini-bus fleet in the tunnel, from what we gathered.

When asked, where the idea came from, he directed the questions to another officer, who on the condition of anonymity as well, gave us an answer. “With everything operating at half capacity right now, some of us looked for other ways to spend our time. I opened Google Earth to see the Attari-Wagah border and then continued on that road to Lahore where I saw a BRTS on a flyover. We then went for lunch, and when I came back, one of my colleagues showed me Elon Musk’s Boring Company”, he said.

You see, Lahore BRTS has a long elevated stretch. If they run a bus on that, why can’t we run a bus in our metro tunnels? We’ve run buses inside the tunnel on the Eastern Freeway?

The officer

When asked about the inspiration from Elon Musk, he said that Musk’s plan was the first to have tunnels under a city and run regular vehicles in them. When pointed out that Musk had a change of heart in 2018 and decided to allow public transport through the system, he responded with “That’s why we’re planning on running buses in them”.

When asked about what would happen about the 31 trains ordered from Alstom, we were told “Jab aaega, tab dekha jaega” (We’ll see about it when they arrive). A third official even dropped a comment that they may be sold to the Mumbai Suburban Rail. We don’t know if he realises that they run on different track gauges.

Whatever, happens, let us hope that Mumbai finally gets the public transport it deserves.

Note: To know how a crane would be used to lift a bus in and out, see this video on how a crane is being used to lift a tractor off the metro viaduct.

Please note: This article is satire and should be treated as such.

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If you intend to step out, whether to board on minibus or metro, please wear a mask, carry sanitizer and maintain social distancing.

Also Read:

Stuck In Traffic? Here’s Elon Musk’s Boring Way To Move Vehicles

What The Boring Company Now Has In Store For Mass Transit

Featured image: Sitting in a BEST A-8 Express (yes, Purple Faeries) through the BARC tunnels on the Eastern Freeway.

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After Offering To Ferry Patients, BEST Converts Mini-Buses To Ambulances

Nearly two weeks after BEST offered to ferry passengers to hospitals, the undertaking has now converted seven of its mini-buses into basic ambulances for Wuhan Coronavirus patients, reports Rajendra Aklekar.

As reported by Mr Aklekar, BESTs workshops have built a completely air-tight partition between the rear section of the bus and the driver’s section. All seats have been removed and the rear emergency door is being used to access the bus.

From being the city’s lifeline, BEST is now the city’s life-saver. We hope to see more buses pressed into action to beat this pandemic in the days to come.

The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai/Brihanmumbai Municipal Corproation (MCGM/BEST) put out an entire list of what the mini-buses are doing.

Buses are being used to transfer asympotamatics, and carry perishable items.

Also, on 14 April, Google put out a Doodle thanking Public Transportation Workers.

Google Doodle thanking Public Transportation workers
Google Doodle thanking Public Transportation workers

That’s all from me now. Say hello to Mumbai’s mini-ambulances.

Also Read: This Is How BEST Is Helping Fight The Pandemic

Also Listen: [Public Service Announcement] – Giving Way to an Ambulance

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Featured Image: BEST minibus at Dadar (Vishal/Twitter)

You can view the original image here

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

As the Covid-19 pandemic keeps Mumbaikars in a Lockdown, the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport Undertaking (BEST) has decided that it will work on a new public relations campaign to improve its services.

Capitalising on CM Udhhav Thackeray’s newfound popularity as the ‘BEST CM’, the undertaking has decided to use his photographs on all its buses henceforth.

Uddhav Thackeray’s handling of the pandemic in Maharashtra has earned him praise from Bollywood (who generally know nothing), parts of the media (who also generally know nothing) and his own allies (who know everything). The only person so far unhappy over the Shiv Sena leader’s handling of the crises is former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis who has criticised his successor over the fact that Maharashtra is almost turning into a Hubei and Mumbai turning into Wuhan.

A search on Twitter for the hashtag #BestCMoftheWorld points directly to Uddhav Thackeray’s profile. While fans of other politicians including Tamil Nadu CM Edappadi K. Palaniswami (EPS), Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) and Delhi Lord Mayor Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal have used the hashtag to promote their leaders, none of them have stood out like the Sena leader.

The BEST undertaking has decided to capitalise on the CM’s new found fame, and will ensure that his face will be visible on all buses, reminding commuters of the same. “If Congress could claim India was Indira and Indira was India, why can’t we claim Uddhav is BEST and BEST is Uddhav?”, asked a Sena member when we approached them.

BEST had started using Thackeray’s images on their buses to promote the Pradhan Manti Awas Yojana in February, a move that irked the Bharatiya Janata Party over the omission of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s photograph.

Please note: This article is satire and should be treated as such.

Featured image: Uddhav Thackeray’s iamge on a BEST Bus registered to the Vikhroli Depot (Ram Kadam/Twitter)

This post is dedicated to Ashwin S Kumar of TheUnrealTimes.

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