Tag: Aerial View

All Aerial View images, drones, upper floors, etc.

You’ve Seen Mumbai Monorail’s Depot From The Train, Here It Is From The Sky

Whenever we take a ride on an intra-city rail line, we’re bound to see the line’s carshed or depot somewhere. If you take the Western Line, you might see the car shed at Mumbai Central or Kandivali, and on the Central Line at Kurla. If you take the Mumbai Metro, you’ll see its depot at Four Bungalows, and if you take the Monorail, you’ll see it at Wadala. There’s a high likelihood that saying Wadala Depot might confuse a lot of people. For it might be referring to BEST’s Wadala Depot that is located at Wadala (West) and is closer to Dadar, or BEST’s Anik and Pratiksha Nagar Depots that are located in Wadala East near the Salt Pans. Or, it could refer to the Monorail Depot.

So, without much further ado, here is the picture of the Monorail Depot:

This amazing drone shot has been taken by a drone-based media agency called BrainWing India. Don’t forget to follow them on Instagram: @brainwing_india.

Apart from the Monorail Depot, you can also see the Lodha New Cuffe Parade apartment complex behind it.

It is important to note that the Monorail depot only houses the first building with a wavy blue roof behind the station and the blue building behind that.

So what are all the other blue sheds and structures in the vicinity? Most of them are casting yards used by various contractors for the Mumbai Metro project.

The first one, at the top left-hand-side corner where the monorail track curves is a casting yard for tunnel rings for Mumbai Metro Line 3 operated by Turkey-based Doğuş and its Hyderabad-based partner Soma. The large blue shed next to the Monorail Depot is used by Tata Projects for the same. L&T and Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) use casting yards at the far end of this picture for casting tunnel rings.

Immediately next to the depot is the Nagarjuna Construction Company’s (NCC) casting yard for casting U-girders for the Metro’s Line 7 and next to it is the casting yard for J Kumar and on top of the that is the casting yard that Simplex used to use for Line 2.

For a better reference, see this tweet by Sahil Pednekar.

The monorail makes for a gorgeous sight from above, no?

That’s all from me for today. Don’t forget to follow BrainWing on Instagram. Don’t forget to share this post as well.

Featured Image: Mumbai Monorail Depot by Ashwin Kumar on Flickr.

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Pune Can Probably Beat UP’s Record With 400 More Buses

Remember how in May, the INC in Uttar Pradesh promised to send 1,000 buses to the Yogi-Adityanath led government in providing transport to migrant workers? And how many of those buses were blacklisted from operations and some were not even buses?

Then someone shared a picture of a a line of buses parked along the highway claiming it had been provided by the Congress. Only to be fact-checked by OpIndia, and proven false. The buses were actually from February 2019 when the Prayagraj Mela Authority and Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) lined up 503 buses on National Highway 19 and set a world record for the Largest Parade of Buses in the Guinness Book of World Records. You can check out the entry by clicking here and also see some pictures.

Now, coming back to Pune. For over a month, 105 buses have been parked on the BRTS lanes of the under-construction road linking the Ravet to Nigdi. Here is a snapshot of it from Google Earth!

One might say, the PMPML can move another 400 buses to this spot and potentially break a world record. While many may say that there is a technicality that these buses are parked and not being paraded, PMPML merely needs to turn on their engines and move them a bit.

Here is a drone shot of the same from Aditya Bhagwat on Instagram.

Click on the arrow in the above image to see the next image. Do follow Aditya (aditya_bhagwat_official) on Instagram!

One fifth of a world record!

Featured Image: Largest parade of buses (Guinness World Records)

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Tiranga Time: One Of India’s Tallest National Flags And Nigdi’s Bhakti Shakti Bus Terminal

Standing tall at 107 m (351 feet), one of India’s tallest National Flags is located at the Bhakti Shakti Chowk at Nigdi in Pimpri-Chinchwad. This junction, an intersection of the Old Mumbai-Pune Highway (National Highway 48/Old NH4), Spine Road and Nigdi Chikhli Road (being extended to the Mukai Chowk Kiwale BRTS terminal) also houses the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) Bhakti Shakti Bus Depot and the Sahityaratna Lokshahir Anna Bhau Sathe Bus Terminal.

The bus terminal is the starting point of the Nigdi-Dapodi arm of the Rainbow BRTS (remember that?).

Shot by Jagdish Patil using a DJI Mavic drone, here is a beautiful view of the bus terminal. You can see the terminal on the left hand side of the upcoming flyover.

Another shot by Jagdish shows the Bhakti Shakti depot. It is visible below in the top right corner, just behind the national flag.

Do follow Jagdish on Instagram: @imjagdishpatil.

That’s all for this post. Quite a tall flag, eh?

Featured Image: Nigdi Bus terminal by Mahesh Kumbar (Google Maps)

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This Is What Mulund Depot Looks Like From Above. Also Look At A Toll Plaza

Okay, I admit that I’ve already shown you guys images of Mulund Depot from above. Except that it’s from 600-odd km above the ground. At least that’s the height at which Maxar’s DigitalGlobe WorldView satellite orbits the Earth.

Here’s one from slightly closer to the ground. Shot with a drone, this one is by Vedish Thorat on Instagram. You can follow Vedish here: @Vedishthorat.

Once among the top depots for AC buses, the Mulund depot sadly houses none today.

Now, along with the Mulund Bus Depot, here is a smashing view of the Thane Anand Nagar Toll Plaza on the Eastern Express Highway, also clicked by Vedish. This toll plaza is operated by MEP Infrastructure on behalf of the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC).

Good looking no?

So here’s the two-for-one: a bus depot and a toll plaza.

I hope you’re enjoying the ad-free experience thanks to Google’s hegemony.

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Featured Image: Mulund Bus Depot (Yogesh Kalgutkar, Google Maps)

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This Is What Worli Depot Looks Like From Above (You Can Charge Electric Vehicles Here Too!)

One of the most under-rated depots under BEST is the Worli depot. It has till date never been home to any air-conditioned buses, although it sheltered the Cerita fleet during the day.

Prior to their cancellation in 2017, there were several buses operated by BEST that terminated at the National Sports Centre of India (NSCI)/Nehru Planetarium/Lotus bus stop at Worli. Originally running till Colaba Depot, they were truncated due to lack of takers. Among these were AS-2 running from Mira Road Station (East), belonging to the Magathane Depot, AS-592 from Kopar Khairane that belonged to the Deonar Depot, A-74 Express of the Oshiwara Depot that took the Bandra-Worli Sea Link, A-75 Express of the Majas Depot coming from Hiranandani Powai and A-76 Express from Gorai Depot that also took the Sea Link. While none of these buses belonged to the Worli Depot, they used to be parked at Worli during the day time. This is because most of them had a schedule where they would leave from their origin point in the morning and leave from Worli only in the evening. Few buses would have a modified route terminating at their home depots instead of their starting points during noon and would return from these depots to Worli in the early afternoon.

Now the Worli depot is also unique in its layout. There are actually two depots separated by Sasmira Marg. While the eastern half of the depot flanks Dr Narayan Hardikar Marg, its entrance is still on Sasmira Marg facing the entrance to the western half.

Latest photographs of the Depot show that it now hosts a few mini-buses, double deckers and also is a charging point for electric vehicles, not just cars.

Also Read: Switching To Electric Cars By 2030: What India Needs To Do

Anyway, getting back to the Worli Depot, here is a fantastic aerial snap of the depot clicked by Kinshuk (@pixels.of.perception on Instagram), using a drone.

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The sound we hear these days on the streets of Mumbai most frequently is the hustling and bustling sound of the BEST buses 😍 Applaud and salute to the spirit of the relentless employees of the BEST who are working day in and out to help essential service provider and frontline workers reach their destination 👏🙌🏼 – 📍 Worli Depot / Worli Aagaar – #mymumbai 🧡 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ #PerspectivePixels #mypixeldiary #_soi #_soimumbai #indiapictures #itz_mumbai #Fromwhereidrone #Drone #aerial #maharashtra #lockdown #lockdown2020 #pandemic #mumbaipolice #BEST #coronawarriors #respect #salute #pattern #symmetry #nustaharamkhor #maibhisadakchap #whatkarlloves #quarantine #quarantineactivities #stayhome #staysafe

A post shared by Kinshuk 📍Mumbai | India (@pixels.of.perception) on

While this picture only captures the Eastern half of the depot, it still is an amazing shot. You can also see a few vehicles belonging to BEST’s Electricity Department on the bottom left hand corner of the image. There are generally cable-inspection and repair vans.

Do follow Kinshuk on Instagram here: Kinshuk 📍Mumbai | India

Anyway, here is a picture of the Mini-buses parked at the Worli Depot taken at 6am in the morning. You can also see a double-decker parked inside.

Mini-buses inside Worli Depot (Photo Credit: Mahesh Sakhalkar for BESTpedia)
Mini-buses inside Worli Depot (Photo Credit: Mahesh Sakhalkar for BESTpedia)

And here is the entrance to the bus depot with a board that designates it as a charging point with the rate of ₹8.25/unit mentioned.

The entrance to Worli Depot charging station (Picture: Mahesh Sakhalkar for BESTpedia)
The entrance to Worli Depot charging station (Picture: Mahesh Sakhalkar for BESTpedia)

Featured image: Entrance to Worli Depot by Mahesh Sakhalkar.

This depot also allows you to charge your electric vehicles!

A special thanks to Mahesh for clicking these amazing photographs for me. Also, don’t forget to share, comment and if you can support me on Patreon.

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And Now, It’s Time To Look At Some Midi-Buses At Mumbai Central Depot

Over the last one month, I have managed to find some incredibly drool-worthy aerial pictures of Mumbai’s new mini-bus fleet from across the city. We’ve seen them at the Colaba Depot, we’ve seen them at the Oshiwara Depot. We’ve also seen a picture of Gurgaon’s buses and metro trains parked at the depot in the northern city. While I have been looking around for similar pictures of other cities to share, notably Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai, I stumbled upon a pair of glorious pair of pictures of the Mumbai Central Depot along with its fleet of Tata Marcopolo CNG midi-buses!

Both these pictures were clicked by Aayush Bhagat who goes by the username mr_clickographer_ on Instagram using a DJI Mavic Pro drone. They also had similar captions, asking the viewer to count the number of buses. This is a very difficult question to answer because most of us bus fans just stare at the picture, totally mesmerized by it.

Anyway, without much ado, let me share with you, the pictures.

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Count the number of bus. – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – #mr_dronewala – shot on-DJI MAVIC PRO #dji #djimavicpro #djiglobal #djiofficial #drone #maibhisadakchap #meinbhiphotographer #nustaharamkhor #iamkanda #mymumbai #itz_mumbai #mumbai_uncensored #photographers_of_india #streetphotographyindia #MumbaiUntold #myhallaphoto #travelrealindia #indianvisuals #streetphotographyindia #_soimumbai #mumbaibizarre #archivesofmumbai #_vop #_ip #phi #world_photography_page #full_photography #streetofmaharashtra #Photokatamasha – @djiglobal @djiofficial @officialphotographyhub @tripotocommunity @mumbaibizarre @itz_mumbai @kanda.le.lo @haram_khor_ @things2doinmumbai @halla_photo_contests

A post shared by Aayush Bhagat 😉 (@_mr_clickographer_) on

In this picture you can see a fantastic view of the entire Mumbai Central Depot with its regular, full-sized, non-airconditioned buses as well as the red-coloured midi-buses. To answer the question, there are a total of 108 buses, 49 regular and 59 air-conditioned.

And now, on to the next set. This is more zoomed in but is still as gorgeous as the previous one.

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Count the No of Busses. – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – #mr_dronewala – 🔥🔥shot on-DJI MAVIC PRO🔥🔥#dji #djimavicpro #djiglobal #djiofficial 🔥🔥#maibhisadakchap #meinbhiphotographer #nustaharamkhor #iamkanda #mymumbai #itz_mumbai #mumbai_uncensored #photographers_of_india #streetphotographyindia #MumbaiUntold #myhallaphoto #travelrealindia #indianvisuals #streetphotographyindia #_soimumbai #mumbaibizarre #archivesofmumbai #_vop #_ip #phi #world_photography_page #spi #streetofmaharashtra #Photokatamasha – @djiglobal @djiofficial @officialphotographyhub @true.colours.of.india @mumbaibizarre @itz_mumbai @kanda.le.lo @haram_khor_ @things2doinmumbai @halla_photo_contests

A post shared by Aayush Bhagat 😉 (@_mr_clickographer_) on

In this shot, there are a total of 41 buses (30 regular and 11 midis) plus two cars parked at the depot. It still is beautiful and extremely drool-worthy, no?

What are your thoughts? Were you able to count the number of buses or were you too busy just staring at these beauties?

Don’t forget to follow Aayush on Instagram!

Move over the mini-buses, it’s time to drool over the midi-buses!

Featured image: Tata Marcopolo CNG buses waiting to be fueled at Mumbai Central (Rajendra Aklekar/Twitter)

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Another Breathtaking View Of Oshiwara Depot And Its Mini-Buses

Almost a month ago, I had posted an image of Oshiwara Depot along with a fabulous view of its mini-bus fleet that was clicked by singer Abhijeet Sawant.

That was not the last time we were to get a snap of the Oshiwara depot from the same photographer. Much like I posted a photograph of Colaba depot and Electric House only to post a second one a mere two days later.

Here is the picture. This was also clicked during Sunset, much like the last one, albeit a little later. A slightly wider photograph, this one includes the entire Oshiwara Depot, as well as the Goregaon Depot adjacent to it. You can also see the depot floor is wet after the rainfall from Cyclone Nisarga.

Another pic of those mini-cuties at Oshiwara.

Oh, and talking of Cyclone Nisarga, you did read our report on what it did, right?

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Featured Image: Oshiwara Depot by Vinayak Adarkar from Mapio.

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Give Me Red: Drool Over Yet Another Picture Of Colaba Depot And Its Mini-Buses

Remember that stunning image I showed you recently of the Colaba Depot and Electric House from the air?

Let me just quickly jog your memory then! Click here: Feast Your Eyes On This Photograph Of Electric House And Colaba Depot

Now, here’s another drool-worthy picture of the same, this time from a different angle by the same photgrapher, Ujwal Puri.

Titled “Give Me Red” it goes with a caption: What’s in the Frame ? “It’s the new fleet of Air Conditioned BEST buses of Mumbai to Beat the Summer Heat . BEST is Best.”

This is just the perfect description of this image.

Ready to look at the image? Here you go!

Amazing, isn’t it? Just amazing! The vibrant contrast, the warmth of the red, and marked parking slots for each bus all make it such a beautiful picture!

Do remember and follow Ujwal Puri on Instagram. His handle is @ompsyram.

That’s all from me for the time-being. Do consider backing me up on Patreon!

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Featured image: Electric House (Amit Dhingra/Google Maps)

Take a look at the warm red, the vibrant contrast of colours and and marked parking slots.

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An Aerial Snap Of Gurugram’s Bus Depot And Metro Depot

Continuing to provide you all with amazing aerial photographs of bus depots, here is a drone photograph, but this time from a different city.

Older readers of BESTpedia might remember that in 2015, when I was undergoing an internship in Gurgaon (now called Gurugram) I had written about ways to get around the city. (Read: Getting around Gurgaon)

In the older post, I had mentioned about buses operated by the Haryana Roadways. In the five years that have elapsed since my short, yet memorable stay in the Millienium City, also erroneously referred to as Cyber City, a lot has changed. For starters, the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA)– since renamed to Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) – no longer has jurisdiction over the city and handles the rest of the state while Gurgaon now comes under the aegis of the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) and Faridabad comes under the Faridabad MDA (FMDA).

Further, intra-city buses in Gurgaon are no longer handled by Haryana Roadways but by a new agency – the Gurugram Metropolitan City Bus Limited (GMCBL) that is a joint venture between the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon, GMDA and the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Corporation Limited (HSIICL). In 2019, owing to the financial troubles that Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) was facing, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) took over Rapid Metro operations as well.

Here is what a GMCBL bus looks like.

Gurugram City Bus (Image Credits: GMCBL/Facebook)
Gurugram City Bus (Image Credits: GMCBL/Facebook)

Now, coming to the aerial view that I was talking about. Gurgaon is among the rare cities in India which has a Metro Depot adjacent to a Bus Depot.

The 11.7km-long RMRG line features two depots, a small one that is located adjacent to the Cybercity Phase 3 Station which is the first elevated metro depot in the country. This was opened along with the first phase of the line in 2013. Here is an aerial view of this from 2016.

The second depot which is much larger, meanwhile is located at the other end of the line, near the Sector 55-56 station. It is this depot that is located adjacent to GMCBL’s bus depot. And here is it’s picture. You’ll have to click on the image to view it.

Shot during the ongoing lockdown using a drone by Gunj Guglani, this was shared recently by TheMetroRailGuy (TMRG) who runs a fantabulous website documenting India’s metro rail. Do check it out here: themetrorailguy.com.

A double bonanza featuring both a bus depot and a metro depot!

That’s all for me for the time being. Remember, share this post, and if you can, do back me up on Patreon. Times are hard and us Bloggers are among the worst affected.

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Featured Image: Gurugram City Bus (Picture Credits: GMCBL/Twitter)

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Feast Your Eyes On This Photograph Of Electric House And Colaba Depot

A few weeks ago I had posted a photograph of a fabulous view of the Oshiwara depot with Mini-Buses parked there. A day later, I shared another visual treat of BEST Midi-Buses snapped on the Sea Link, both sourced from Instagram.

Today, I’m sharing yet another fantastic image, this time of BEST’s Electric House at Colaba. Nearly a century and a half old, Electric House is the headquarters of the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking and is located on the Colaba Causeway. It is located next to the Parsi Colony and apart from housing the offices of BEST, also houses the Colaba Depot.

Until BEST was taken over by the Bombay Municipal Corporation in 1947, Colaba Depot remained the only facility for maintenance and repair of buses.

So, without further ado, here is the image of the Colaba Depot! The picture was clicked by Ujwal Puri and shared on Twitter by Sahil Pednekar. Do click on the picture to see the full image.

The depot and Electric House are located to the right hand side with half the depot being populated by BEST’s regular, full-length buses with the other half being populated by the mini-bus fleet. These mini-buses are owned by PNM Transport and Mobility Limited, identified by PNM on the body of the bus.

Electric House and Colaba Depot look fantastic from above, don’t they?

That’s all from my side for today. If you liked this post, do consider backing me up on Patreon.

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Featured image: Electric House, clicked in 2005 by Nicholas Alphonso.

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