The Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking formally inaugurated its Operational Command an Control Centre on Friday (29 January 2021) at the Wadala bus depot. The Centre will be crewed by a staff of 16 and the centre will have video walls that will help track the position of every bus live. It will be integrated with BEST’s Intelligent Transit System (ITS) and also the BEST Pravas app that commuters can then use.
According to a report in Mid-Day by Rajendra Aklekar, there are two video walls with 9 displays that are 55 inches large. A conference room has also been built. The Centre will monitor all buses and their maintenance, track buses and relay their live location to commuters, handle lost and found items for commuters and will lastly function as a Control Centre during disaster situations.
While BEST has consistently stuck to one design for their AC minibus fleet, the Force Motors Smart Citibus, their midibus fleet has a lot more variations. The first to enter the fleet were the BYD/Olectra electric buses, both in an AC and non-AC versions, attached to the Backbay and Kalakilla depots. The second was the CNG-powered Tata Marcopolo which was originally attached to the Mumbai Central Depot and later also reached the Deonar and Magathane depots.
Now, BEST has gone and got itself a new set of midibuses, this time electric once again. The bus this time is from Tata Motors, and is the Tata Marcopolo Starbus Ultra 9m Electric city bus. According to Tata Motors the bus is Bharat Stage VI compliant (although I don’t understand why emission standards would apply to an electric vehicle) and features a top speed of 75 km/hr with a range of 150 km under ideal conditions and a charging time of 2 to 2.5 hours with fast charging.
The bus also has an automated wheelchair ramp for the disabled. The last time BEST buses had such a feature was in the original Tata Starbus fleet that was inducted in 2004-2005 (which were later used on the Fort Pheri routes) although these were manually operated.
You can check out some images here. The bus, like the other midibuses, features a USB charging socket under the seat. It was flagged off by (sadly) Uddhav Thackeray and Aaditya Thackeray.
These buses are also on Wet Lease like the other ones, and owned by Tata Motors Limited (marked with TML on the front and the back). They’re currently attached to the Backbay Depot and run on at least one route: A-25 from Backbay Depot to Rani Laxmi Chowk (Sion).
That’s all from me for now. BEST’s new EVs look really cool!
For my first impressions of BEST’s earlier Midi and Mini-buses, do check out the following:
Whether you’re travelling in an electric bus, a diesel bus or a CNG powered bus, don’t forget to take the basic precautions when you step out. Do wear a mask, and carry sanitizer with you.
Featured Image: BEST A-25 from Backbay Depot to Rani Laxmi Chowk (Sion) (Vishal/Twitter)
Of all the BEST depots, the most photogenic one of all seems to be the Colaba Depot, mainly due to the location of the Cusrow Bagh Parsi Colony located right next doors.
I’ve posted two aerial pictures of Colaba so far, both clicked by Ujjwal Puri aka Ompsyram on Instagram.
Here is one of the Colaba Depot and Electric House clicked at night and man does it look gorgeous with all those lights around it!
In the last one month, BEST has been junking some of its buses that are over 15 years old, resulting in a shortage of buses. Simultaneously with metro and monorail services shut and suburban services restricted, the undertaking is facing a severe shortage of buses. In order to augment its capacity temporarily, BEST has decided to rent out buses from its younger sibling the MSRTC at a rate of ₹75 per kilometre. MSRTC (or ST) will also provide drivers and conductors as part of the agreement. The buses in question are primarily ST’s fleet of red Parivartan buses, also known as Lal Dabbas or to some fans as Lal Paris.
While 200 buses were initially rented, MSRTC is expected to supply a total of 1,000 buses of its 18,000 buses. Note. Prior to its bifurcation in 2014, the APSRTC had India’s largest fleet of buses, entering the Guinness Book of World Records in 1999 with a fleet strength of 22,000 buses. Post the split, APSRTC has been left with 12,000 buses while TSRTC was given 10,000 buses, making MSRTC the current largest.
The BEST committee is however not enthused with this move. The BMC has decided to cut ₹500 crore for BEST but is going ahead to paying MSRTC. At the same time, 450 of BEST air-conditioned mini and midi buses that have been acquired on a wet lease are lying unused at various depots. The Mumbai Bus Malak Sanghatana, a body of private bus owners has offered to lease their buses at ₹55 per kilometre, and the decision to not use these private buses has also been questioned. There are also allegations of possible scams under the Uddhav Thackeray-led government in the purchase of body bags and procurement of food packets.
Anyway, scams aside, here are some photographs of the buses on several routes.
Some ST buses don’t have route markings and the conductor is shouting out the route number and destination on reaching the stop.
@rajtoday an @msrtcofficial bus deployed into action on the once premium route of @myBESTBus .. andheri to hutatma chowk. fond memories. Used to be a double-decker service for this route in the 80s. UpperDeckFirstSeatDays pic.twitter.com/e5Lz1KJFvq
Nearly two and a half months after BEST announced that it too would get on to the QR code-based payments bandwagon, the undertaking has now announced that it will partner up with Yes bank-backed PhonePe to provide all conductors with QR codes. Commuters can however use any app to pay for the tickets.
According to a Mid-Dayreport by Rajendra Aklekar, BEST has provided 10,000 QR codes to its conductors on all 3,000 buses across 27 depots. While initially limited to the Colaba and Wadala depots, it is now available across the city.
However, another report by Aklekar did underline the importance of proper training being provided to bus conductors, in the absence of which, cash reigns supreme.
BEST has also put up banners and advertisements inside buses to promote the new payment system. It has also put up instructions for commuters at a few bus stops.
The Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking, which has pioneered the use of rolling cloth displays for its destination boards on buses for decades since inception, has finally found a solution to a problem that has plagued it for the last decade. Thanks to the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM; whose logo is a jurm for being ugly), most buses got themselves route indicator boards that were LED (light emitting diode) displays.
In the first five years since LED route indicators were introduced (2007 onwards), they stopped working. While BEST did try to fix them and look for alternatives including using a chalk board, the culprit was soon identified. The displayed began malfunctioning when buses were washed. Rumour has it that BEST contacted its southern counterpart, the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) in 2013, asking them how LED display units were functional after washing the bus. They allegedly received a very simple response: “What does washing a bus mean?“.
Keeping all this in mind, BEST has now decided to go a step forward and get a new technology using one of the most abundant elements available – dust. Yes, that’s right, BEST is now using Dust-Written displays now. Below is an image of one such display on Route 200 from Shrawan Yeshwante Chowk (Kala Chowky) to Versova Yari Road Bus Station.
After pioneering Rolling Cloth displays for decades, BEST buses are sporting a new technology: Dust Writing Displays.
We got in touch with freelance dust expert and garbologist Rajgira Khamandhokle to learn more. Readers may be reminded that Rajgira Khamandhokle is a frequent traveler on buses, having not once, but twice learnt a valuable lesson from a conductor. (You can read here and here)
We learnt that a dust-written display is extremely power efficient and eco-friendly. When we asked what would happen if the writing gets washed away in the rains, we were told that the amount of dust being kicked up on Mumbai’s roads would easily settle on the glass panel, making for an easy re-drawing.
The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) through BEST is sensitising the need of washing hands and that fans of the MCGM are seeing this as an eye opener campaign to bring down Covid19 (Wuhan Virus) cases in the city. An MCGM spokesperson who wanted to remain anonymous said that anyone who writes the destination on a bus would be given free sanitizer. Though he wanted to remain anonymous and that we over here don’t care about such a concept, we would like to informe that he doesn’t work at the Ghatkopar Depot and his name is not Mahesh Sakhalkar.
On noticing Tanu loves Manu written on one of the buses, Tinder was trying to capitalise on the new system and save the sinking Titanic.
Note: The above article is meant to be humourous.Please don’t register a police complain or send goondas to the writer’s residence.
Featured image: A cloth display on Bus 342 from Goregaon Station (East) to Kokan Vikas Mandal via New Zealand Hospital by Bhavik Vasa (via Twitter)
BEST’s Wadala Depot, located at the border of Wadala (West) and Dadar (East) is among their oldest ones. It is also the depot where people need to go to get their spare change returned.
The depot is home to several types of buses, including the converted non-AC Cerita fleet and also the mini-bus fleet belonging to MP Enterprises (MPE).
Have you ever wondered what the Wadala Depot looks like from above? Or at least partially? Look no further, well, actually a little further.
Okay, by now I assume you’ve either bookmarked my blog because you love the aerial shots or you have decided never again would you visit because your bored. At my end, it’s becoming difficult since there are fewer and fewer images that I can find.
Here is an image of the Gorai Depot, BEST’s northernmost depot as well as the second westernmost depot. As stated earlier, the westernmost depot is the Malvani Depot.
These two pictures were clicked in May 2018 and January 2019 by Rupesh Ghadge. Do follow Rupesh on Instagram here: @the_black_advento.
Here is the first one, clicked at night in May 2018.
This image was clicked during the December 2018-January 2019 strike by staffers of BEST. The strike ultimately prompted then Municipal Commissioner Praveen Pardeshi to allow BEST to tap in to the MCGM’s budget.
I don’t support bus strikes (or strikes of any kind for that matter); do read my earlier article on why: Strike It Off! (yes, the title was inspired by Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off).
Featured image: AS-461 bound for Gorai Depot waiting at Mulund Check Naka Bus Station (Picture clicked by Srikanth Ramakrishnan in April 2015).
Back to BEST. For now. The city’s first depot to house electric buses (well, at least Hybrids) was Dharavi which housed the Tata Starbus Diesel-Electric Hybrid fleet. After that came the Backbay Depot that housed the first set of Olectra (then known as Goldstone) buses followed by Dharavi’s twin – the Kala Killa Depot.
For those who may not know, the Kala Killa Depot was formally opened on 31 Janaury 2016. Until then the land behind the Dharavi Depot was never formally used as a depot. Between 2005 and 2016, buses attached to the Kurla Depot were parked here because the Kurla Depot was being rebuilt by Kanakia (part of it is a multi-tier depot, visible from the Santacruz-Chembur Link Road and part of it is Kanakia Zillion) after being damaged during the July 2005 floods.
Here is a photograph of the depot that was clicked by Shashank Parade, a photographer attached to the Press Trust of India (PTI).
You can see the Hybrid fleet in the left side of this image. Beyond the depot, you see the Dharavi Loop Road/Sion Bandra Link Road, the Mahim Nature Park and the Mithi River. Those tall buildings you see are in the Bandra Kurla Complex.
That’s all for now. See ya’ll next time.
Featured Image: Dharavi Depot by Santosh Nadar on Google Maps
After BMTC and MTC, BEST too has opted to go in for a QR code-based UPI payment system, except this time it is to eliminate loose change lying with the undertaking.
As reported by Rajendra Aklekar for Mid-Day, the new system will be tested by BEST for buses belonging to two depots, Wadala and Colaba. Conductors will wear a badge with the QR Code on it. Commuters will have to tell conductors their destination, he will tell them the fare and then commuters can scan and make the payment using a UPI-compliant app.
BEST apparently has crores worth of loose change lying in their depots, prompting them to sometimes pay staff salaries with them.
BEST currently allows passengers to pay using their prepaid card (the ePurse) and using the Ridlr app. Both will remain independent of the new system and will remain operational.
The ePurse system was down for a significant time (seven months) in the 2018-2019 period when ticket machines failed after their provider Trimax IT filed for bankruptcy.
Let’s hope BEST’s move will see UPI adoption increase further.
Featured image: Death of the BEST ticket; Oh, how the mighty have fallen (Satish Krishnamurthy on Flickr)
