Mumbai to bid adieu to double-decker buses; commuters urge BEST to preserve some

Mumbais iconic red doubledecker buses which have been an integral part of the citys public transport system for more than eight decades will go off the streets this week an official from the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport BEST Undertaking said on TuesdayThe opendeck doubledecker buses which have served as sightseeing buses for tourists since the 1990s will also disappear from the city streets in the first week of October he saidAs these buses are going off the roads forever commuter groups and bus enthusiasts have urged BEST to preserve at least two of these iconic vehicles at its Anik depotbased museum and have written to the Maharashtra chief minister tourism minister and the BEST administrationCurrently just seven doubledecker buses including three opendeck buses are left in the BESTs fleet As these vehicles are completing 15 years of their codal life the doubledecker buses will forever go off roads from September 15 while the opendeck buses will be pulled out on October 5 a BEST spokesperson saidRed doubledecker buses were introduced in the citys public transport system in 1937 and they have since become symbolic of the city itself and interestingly have also featured in songs of Bollywood movies set in MumbaiIn the beginning of the 1990s the BEST had a fleet of around 900 doubledecker buses but the number gradually declined after the mid90sCiting the high operating cost the BEST administration stopped inducting doubledecker buses after 2008 The BEST since February this year started replacing these iconic buses with leased batteryrun red and black doubledecker buses and so far about 25 such buses have been introducedThe BEST in a release last week said it is going to procure opendeck buses for sightingseeing and it has already started the process of acquiring them Until then the new batteryrun doubledecker ebuses will be operated for touristsSome commuters however argue that though the batteryrun buses are comfortable they lack the charm of their older counterpartsAs the new doubledecker ebuses are airconditioned we will miss sitting in the front in the old buses and travelling with the breeze from the open windows on our faces said Harshad Joshi a bus enthusiastTo prevent the doubledecker buses from going under the hammer a commuters body Aapli BEST Aaplyasathi has written to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde BMC chief Iqbal Singh Chahal and Deputy Chief Ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar and the BESTs general manager urging them to stop these buses from meeting the same fate as trams which were the first mode of public transport in the cityWe have requested them to preserve the last two red doubledecker buses and put them on display at the BESTs museum for tourists and future generations said Rupesh Shelatkar president of the commuters group claiming that so far no politician or bureaucrat has responded to their lettersHe further said the group wishes to bid adieu to the legacy buses with a lot of fanfare in south Mumbai but despite repeated attempts the BEST administration has not responded to the requestSiddhesh Mhatre the working president of Aapli BEST Aaplyasathi said that in 1964 trams disappeared from the city roads forever The city had both single and doubledecker trams but not one of them was saved Later a tram was brought here from Kolkata for display purposes but it corroded Finally it was repaired a few years ago and displayed at BoribandarMumbai is the only city in the county with so many doubledecker buses in public service Hence these legacy buses must be preserved Mhatre said adding that every metro city in the world has a transport museum but Mumbai doesnt have one and preserving these buses will be a step towards thisThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever