While Mumbai suburbs is waiting for air-conditioned (AC) double-decker e-buses, the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking is busy conducting surveys for route safety where these buses will run.
On the other hand, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is busy identifying potentially harmful tree branches, speed breakers, and height barriers installed on roads. Once the survey concludes, the double-decker buses will be ready to run through BKC and Andheri routes within a fortnight.
A batch of 19 AC double-decker BEST buses will be running on roads soon. Out of these 19, a batch of 10 AC buses will operate between Bandra and Kurla via BKC. In the next phase, nine double-decker buses will be operating on the Andheri-Marol-Seepz route, said BEST officials.
This was the same route on which non-ac double-decker bus used to run before retirement in September.
BEST officials said that they were checking if there were any vertical obstacles on the above-mentioned routes before the 19 double-decker AC buses started operating. An official stated, "Among other things, we are looking for trees and hanging branches and whether the height of bridges is too close."
Answering to question of why this survey was not done when the buses were being procured the officials replied that a dry run was first done with other buses. The official said, “But since the AC double-deckers, at 4.75 meters, are slightly taller than the non-AC ones, some ground clearances were required to be reconfirmed.”
Initially, when the officials conducted a trial of an AC double-decker bus, the front window of the upper deck was damaged by tree branches.
Former BEST Committee Member, Sunil Ganacharya, said that the test could have been conducted while the buses were being procured. “They could have simply run their existing buses and identified the issues. This is a sheer waste of time,” he said.
Another Former BEST Committee Member, Ravi Raja said that it was mismanagement on the part of the BEST administration. He questioned what route survey is being conducted now. He said that they knew that more AC double-deckers would join their fleet. All this should have been done on a priority basis beforehand.
From Switch Mobility BEST will procure 200 AC double-decker e-buses. Out of these 200, 39 e-buses are already delivered. The remaining buses will be received by BEST by March 2024.
Similarly, 700 AC double-decker e-buses will be supplied by Harit Mobility. The agency will deliver a batch of 50 buses by December 2023, 100 e-buses each month from January to June 2024, and the balance of 50 buses will be delivered in July 2024. Thus, within the next one year, 900 double-decker AC e-buses will be operating from 12 bus depots.
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