The Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking will soon rationalise a few bus routes so that they ‘merge’ with others and thus can help commuters change buses easier, reportsShashank Rao for the Free Press Journal.
Under this new hub and spoke model, bus routes will converge at key areas, allowing for streamlined traffic and better changeovers for passengers. In order to implement this plan, the undertaking will require 4,852 buses. It currently has only 3,242.
What all does the plan entail?
The plan involves five nodal points each in the island city and Western suburbs and four in the Eastern suburbs. They are Colaba, Backbay, Worli, Mahim and Dadar in the south, Bandra, Santacruz, Goregaon, Dindoshi and Dahisar in the West and Sion, Mulund, Anushakti Nagar and Ghatkopar in the East. Different routes will converge at these nodal points, allowing passengers to seamlessly change routes.
Further, bus operations will be divided into five corridors. There is a main corridor, a sub-corridor, an east-west corridor and rail-feeder corridor. The last one will also see an expansion once Metro Lines 2 and 7 are operational.
What is the hub and spoke model?
The hub and spoke model, as opposed to the point-to-point model is where a certain geographical region has a point that acts as a hub. Multiple routes converge at the hub , thus allowing an exchange of passengers from one route to another. The model is heavily used in aviation where flights along lesser served routes arrive at a hub and passengers then transfer to another flight.
In the current context, an example of the hub and spoke model (partially) would be people taking the suburban line to either Andheri or Ghatkopar and then boarding the Metro Line 1.
BEST’s plan to go for a hub and spoke model would augur well for commuters.
Featured Image: Buses parked at Agarkar Chowk in 2018, viewed from the skywalk by Srikanth Ramakrishnan
In a bid to boost the usage of electric vehicles (EVs) in the city, the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking has decided to establish 55 EV charging stations at various bus depots and stops, reportsThe Free Press Journal. BEST General Manager Lokesh Chandra stated that these charging points will be made accessible to private vehicles as well.
BEST has 386 EVs in its fleet currently and not all of its 27 depots have charging facilities. Options for both slow and fast charging will be made available for those who want to use the charging points. The report also adds that according to Vahan, there are 2,143 EVs registered in four RTOs (Tardeo, Andheri, Borivali and Wadala) in Mumbai.
It currently takes six hours for BEST buses to charge completely, which may pose a hurdle considering that the undertaking is looking at procuring 1,900 electric buses by 2023. BEST’s current fleet consists of electric buses manufactured by Olectra (formerly Goldstone), and Tata Motors (Tata Starbus and Tata Marcopolo).
In a report for Mid-Day last month, transport experts felt that BEST could supply the electricity to its depots for charging EVs in order to reduce costs and more importantly, improve finances of the electricity supply division of the undertaking. Buses are currently heavily subsidised by the Central Government’s Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India (FAME India) Scheme.
This electrifying plan looks quite like the BEST idea for BEST right now.
Feautured Image: BEST’s Olectra Bus by Yash Mhadgut.
If you intend to step out, whether to board on electric bus or not, please wear a mask, carry sanitizer and maintain social distancing.
After exploring several avenues to boost revenues, loss-making Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) has decided to implement one more method. The Corporation has decided to install digital screens for advertisements inside buses.
This method was earlier pioneered by the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking in Mumbai in the late 2007s. BEST buses had closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras positioned at the entrance and exit of buses and two screens at the front of the bus that alternated between footage from the cameras and advertisements. Anyone who took a BEST bus in 2007-2008 would remember trailers of Jimmy, the debut film of Mithun Chakraborty’s son Mimoh. It kept appearing every two minutes and was really annoying.
Below is an image of the new display inside a PMPML bus, shared on Twitter by Devesh Shah.
This can be a good revenue booster for PMPML, which is currently in dire straits. As per a news report from July, the corporation is expecting its losses to touch ₹9,600 crore in the next ten years.
PMPML has been looking at different avenues of monetising its available assets over the last year but many of its efforts have faced a lot of flak. The most critical response was to a plan in March where it was proposed to set up bus shelters with a small-shop attached to it. Many activists and the usual suspect Pune Mirror heaped unwarranted criticism over the move claiming it would attract paan-bidi shops and inconvenience passengers without a shred of evidence.
Subsequently PMPML began looking for other avenues, including starting parcel services and redeveloping its depots as commercial spaces.
The plan to set up digital displays may bode well for the corporation. A Business Standardreport from 2013 said that BEST was charging advertisers a mere ₹9,300 for a 10 second advert on displays across its fleet. Should PMPML equip all the buses in its fleet with displays, it can earn a significant amount. It can also make use of the displays present at its Rainbow BRTS stations.
Let’s hope PMPML succeeds this time. Video ads inside a bus may not be such a bad deal after all.
Nearly two years after the first batch of AC minibuses hit the roads of Andheri, BEST finally seems to have given in to a long pending demand.
Till now, the two AC buses connecting Lokhandwala Complex to Andheri Station (West) A-266 and A-268, both terminated at Swami Samarth Nagar Circle. While A-266 went via Four Bunglows, A-268 went via Monginis Cake Company. There was no direct AC bus from Lokhandwala Complex to Andheri Station. The only air-conditioned connection from Lokhandwala Complex was A-234 that went to Jogeshwari Bus Station (West).
This was brought to light by our friends at the Andheri Lokhandwala Oshiwara Citizen’s Association (ALOCA) via an Instagram Post.
The route change took effect from 1 September 2021, just a fortnight short of the second anniversary of BEST launching these postvans.
I’m not sure about how the fare would work yet though. If the existing non-AC fare is ₹10, then this falls under the second stage and BEST would then be required to have two AC fares as well, which would be a problem with mini-buses. I will update this post as I get more information.
As the Central Government’s rollout of FAME (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric vehicles) continues at a rapid pace, we’re in for a new visual treat.
This time, it’s a simple photograph of new buses. After getting hold of its first full length, electric buses at the start of the month, the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking has got another set of buses from Tata Motors’ plant at Dharwad in Karnataka.
Clicked by fellow transit fan, Gandharva Purohit, this is a batch of 25 Tata Starbus Urban Electric Buses, parked adjacent to the Mulund (East) Toll Plaza on the Eastern Express Highway on 28 August.
Here are some images of the buses:
New Tata EVs parked at Anand Nagar Toll Plaza (Gandharva Purohit/G.P. Busfanning)
This photograph was taken from in front of the buses.
New Tata EVs parked at Anand Nagar Toll Plaza (Gandharva Purohit/G.P. Busfanning)
This photograph was taken from the footbridge across the highway between the main toll plaza and its extension.
New Tata EVs parked at Anand Nagar Toll Plaza (Gandharva Purohit/G.P. Busfanning)
This picture was taken from behind the line of buses.
While it is unsure which depot these buses will be allotted too, they are likely to head to either Worli or Malvani Depots.
If you’re active on Twitter, please do retweet Gandharva’s tweet (included below) and don’t forget to follow him.
In 2019, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis approved a rubber-tyred metro – the first in the country called the Metro Neo for the city of Nashik. While other smaller cities were considering light rail transit – now called MetroLite – Nashik went on a different route.
Two lines have been proposed by the Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation (MahaMetro) for the Metro Neo in Nashik, totaling 30 stations across 32 km.. Below is a map of the same.
Nashik Metro-Neo Map
A rubber-tyred metro is essentially a hybrid of road and rail technology. In many ways it is like a combination of a bus rapid transit system (BRTS) and a light rail transit system (LRTS).
Nashik’s Metro Neo system got approval from the state government in August 2019, and the detailed project report (DPR) was sent to the Centre in June 2020. It was approved by the Centre in 2020 and eventually ₹2,092 crore was allotted to it by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in January 2021 as part of the annual union budget.
In April 2021, MahaMetro invited an Expression of Interest (EoI) for manufacture and supply of the trolleybuses that would run using an overhead catenary.
Now, on 27 August 2021, Praveen Mudholkar, a journalist working for BBC Marathi, tweeted out two videos of what looked like prototypes for the rolling stock. You can take a look below.
One can make out the MahaMetro logo and the Metro Neo logo on the sides of the vehicle as well as the vestibule. While it is not clear who is the manufacturer, the rear windshield resembles that of Tata Motors’ Marcopolo/Starbus series of buses. However, the video was taken in Nagpur, and Tata Motors manufactures its buses at Dharwad, Karnataka.
A thought did occur to me on this. In 2018, when MahaMetro awarded the tenders for Pune Metro’s rolling stock to Titagarh Firema, it was reported that while 25 per cent of the trains would be manufactured at Firema’s plant in Italy, the remaining would be manufactured at MahaMetro’s facility in Nagpur.
Here is a better quality video of the same coaches, courtesy Devesh Shah’s Infra Vlogs on Youtube. Don’t forget to subscribe to Devesh’s channel!
Anyway, let’s hope that Metro Neo comes to Nashik soon! It’s Neo time for something Neo.
If you intend to step out please wear a mask, carry sanitizer and maintain social distancing.
A new rumour, aided by a photoshopped image has been floating around social media that claims that the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking is launching red-coloured electric taxis. Interestingly the picture features a Volkswagen Polo which is a diesel-powered car manufactured by Volkswagen AG which has been mired in controversies relating to its emission standards. (Do read up on Dieselgate and Emissionsgate)
Below is an image of the so-called taxi. In it, one can see a red-coloured car with what looks like a sticker of BEST’s logo on the rear door and BEST Electric Taxi written on the front foor. However, the positioning and angle of the text is a clearly giveaway that this is a ham-fisted photoshop job.
On being asked on Twitter, the undertaking responded saying it was fake news.
BEST then issued a press note with a clarification that image was indeed fake. In their clarification, they have stated that due to the image surfacing on social media, there were questions among the general public if such a service existed or if BEST was planning on starting one. BEST stated that it neither had such a service nor planned to start one in the near future.
Press Note from BEST clarifying that the taxi service is fake news
Fellow transit fan Akshay Marathe (not to be confused with Akshay Marathe of the Aam Aadmi Party) joked that this could be real given the shrinking size of BEST buses.
That’s all folks. BEST is not launching any taxi service. This seems to be a case of the BEST Fake Taxi. Or is it BEST Baitbus?
If you intend to step out please wear a mask, carry sanitizer and maintain social distancing.
In what seems to be a welcome break from the constant rivalry between different municipal transport bodies within the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), the Birhanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking and the Thane Municipal Transport (TMT) undertaking have set up a combined bus shelter for both their buses at Mulund Station.
While the rivalry between BEST and TMT was predominantly along the coveted Thane-Borivali Route (AS-700 and AC-65), it eventually expanded to other routes including non-AC ones as well. Thankfully, it never went as bad as the relationship between BEST and the Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport (NMMT) undertaking went when in 2010, NMMT refused entry to BEST’s AS-505 to its bus station at CBD Belapur while BEST refused entry to AC-125 at Santacruz and Bandra Bus Station.
While BEST and TMT (also NMMT) buses do enter each others’ bus stations and halt at each others’ bus stops, they are always clearly demarcated. For example, at Agarkar Chowk, TMT buses stop at a unipole marked with TMT’s routes, similarly on the Thane Belapur Road, bus shelters will see a separate unipole for BEST buses.
The bus stop at Mulund is an initiative of the local corporator Prakash Gangadhare of the Bharatiya Janata Party, representing Ward No 104 of the T-Ward in the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) who is also a member of the BEST committee. It was built by combining three existing bus stops –Dr Rajendra Prasad Road and Sardar Vallabhai Patel Road and Mulund Railway Station (West) and is located at Jata Shankar Dosa Road (JSD Road). The earlier TMT bus stops have been demolished by the MCGM.
BEST buses that earlier stopped at Dr Rajendra Prasad Road include the following: 303, 396 Ltd, 398 Ltd, 422, 424, 460 Ltd, C-16 Exp. BEST feeder buses that earlier stopped at Sardar Patel Road include the following: 391, A-402, A405, A412. TMT buses that stopped nearby earlier include: 85, 88, 102, 104, 110, 115, 122.
Fellow transit fan and BEST enthusiast Vishal Naik took some photographs of the bus stop. Another BEST enthusiast, Rupak Dhakate pointed out that the bus stops should be segregated since they would cause confusion between BEST and TMT users. He also pointed out that the current route signage did not differentiate bus routes based on the colour coding that BEST uses – black for regular, red for limited, blue for air-conditioned and green for express routes – another potential situation that may cause confusion.
Below are some pictures of the bus stop, clicked by Vishal Naik.
The new bus stop when viewed across the street (Vishal Naik)A unipole marking BEST buses that stop at this bus stop. Note that all of these buses are AC routes, and thus should have an A prefixed to them, which they don’t. (Vishal Naik)A name board marking the bus stop as Dr Rajendra Prasad Road (Dr R. P Road) (Vishal Naik)A name board marking the bus stop as Sadar Vallabhai Patel Road (S. V. P Road) (Vishal Naik)
Of course, there is a small problem. Apart from the congestion issues that Rupak mentioned earlier, there is also the issue of auto-rickshaws.
When BEST launched its AC mini-buses in Andheri in late 2019, auto-rickshaws cried foul as they quickly lost patrons. In the case of Mulund, it seems the auto-rickshaw fleet pre-empted that and decided that they’d park right in front of the new bus stop. Looks like the Mumbai Traffic Police have a task on their hands.
Auto-rickshaws waiting to pick up passengers right outside the new bus stop (Gandharva Purohit)
Let’s hope this bus stop does well for both BEST and TMT!
Featured Image: Photo of Prakash Gangadhare at the new bus stop (Gandharva Purohit)
Do follow Rupak on Twitter (slzrupak) and Instagram (@mlv.rupak). Do follow Vishal on Twitter (@vnaik23) and Instagram (@not_huge). Do follow Gandharva on Twitter (@gp30543).
If you intend to step out please wear a mask, carry sanitizer and maintain social distancing.
Nearly four years after it got is first batch of electric buses (Goldstone non-AC buses at the Backbay Depot), the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking last week (7 August, BEST Divas), rolled out its latest buses. Full length, electric, air-conditioned buses are finally here as part of the fleet.
BEST has been experimenting with several buses over the last four years, particularly in the air-conditioned fleet. Today the fleet consists of Tata Starbus Diesel-Hybrid full-length buses, Force Smart Citibus Diesel mini-buses, Tata Marcopolo CNG midi-buses, Tata Ultra Electric Midi-buses, Olectra electric Midi-buses and now Tata Ultra Electric full-length buses.
The new lot of buses will be attached to the Backbay Depot in South Bombay and Dharavi Depot in mid-town. Two buses were flagged off on 6th August. The routes are A-115 from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus to NCPA via Churchgate and A-116 from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus to NCPA via the Reserve Bank of India and Museum (Dr Shyamaprasad Mookherjee Chowk).
@CMOMaharashtra flagged off Electric Bus routes today: A-115: Between Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus and NCPA via Churchgate & A-116: Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus to NCPA via RBI, Museum Timing: 8.00 to 19.30 (every 5 min)#bestupdates#ElectricVehiclepic.twitter.com/xeJeKfNzdm
Finally full size 12m buses are here. These are one of the first full size Pure E-Buses in the fleet. Yesterday 25 buses were launched with two AC routes A-115 and A-116. First batch of these buses are alotted to Backbay Depot. Total 140 full size E-buses will join the fleet pic.twitter.com/JGo9szm5vp
A recent rumour has been spreading that the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking is shutting down its Oshiwara Depot on 1 August 2021.
The rumour was started by a group called Aapli BEST (आपली बेस्ट आपल्याचसाठी) on Facebook. In a series of tweets, they shared the same fake news, which was soon shared by several bus fans on both Instagram and Whatsapp stories. Below is a screenshot of one such story.
Fake News spread by Aapli Best on Oshiwara Depot shutting down
The post makes allegations that according to information received from “sources”, the Oshiwara Depot will shut on 1 August 2021 and the routes from the depot will be handled by the adjacent Goregaon Depot. It then says that staff from Oshiwara too will be transferred to Goregaon and that discussions between the undertaking’s administration and staff happened over the last few days. It then goes on to say that the sudden decision left the workers at BEST in a panic and that the reason behind BEST’s decision was not certain. The post then makes the allegation that BEST employees have reported that the land was sold to the builder lobby before completely changing topic to talking about private buses. It then says BEST has already got private buses and private staffers (buses on a wet lease) before asking the undertaking if it planned on completely privatising the service. The post ended with the question asking if the alleged closure of the Oshiwara depot was not a precursor to complete privatisaion.
The entire post makes little no sense. As a former journalist, one thing I have learned over the last few years is, never rely on any report that directly says “sources”. Two, if BEST was intending on privatising itself, why would land for the Depot be sold? Wouldn’t the private player also require the depot land to maintain and operate buses?
BEST put all doubts to rest by responding to the tweets, stating that the information being spread was incorrect.
आपण प्रसार करत असलेली माहिती चुकीची आहे. आपण बेस्टची अधिकृत माहिती प्राप्त व खात्री करून सोशल मीडिया वर प्रसार करणे अपेक्षित आहे.
