28 January,2022 07:47 AM IST | Mumbai | Rajendra B. Aklekar
Double decker buses were first introduced in Mumbai in 1937 on the lines of the red double decker buses in London. File pic
The BEST Undertaking on Tuesday approved procurement of 900 air-conditioned electric double decker buses on lease for a period of 12 years. The initial tender of 200 buses has been upgraded to 900 buses to be funded under the clean air policy.
Maharashtra has been allotted a total corpus of over Rs 2,000 crore, at the recommendation of the 15th Finance Commission, specifically to address air pollution in the state. The state government has launched the Maharashtra Clean Air Project with this aim.
"The BEST committee in Tuesday's meeting approved procuring 900 air-conditioned double decker electric buses on wet lease basis," a BEST spokesperson said. However, BJP leader and committee member Sunil Ganacharya questioned the BEST's policy and said how can a tender that initially called for 200 and later raise it to 900 buses.
At present, the BEST undertaking, which is India's largest electric bus fleet for any single public transporter, has a fleet of 3,377 buses of which 386 are electric buses. BEST General Manager Lokesh Chandra had told mid-day that the eventual aim was to have absolute green energy electric buses, which are emission free and noise free, which meant buses would run on electric energy that has been procured from sources like solar or hydro energy.
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Following several emotional appeals from Mumbaikars, as first reported by mid-day, the BEST undertaking had placed orders for 100 new double decker buses with power-operated doors and set the process rolling in November 2020. The order was later upgraded to 200 electric buses and now to 900.
First introduced in Mumbai in 1937 on the lines of the red double decker buses in London, Mumbai's buses quietly began vanishing from the city's landscape with the fleet going down from 227 in April 2006 to 171 April 2008 and 134 in July 2009, 122 in 2018, 60 in December 2020 and presently only 48 which, too, will be phased out by year-end.
48
No. of double decker buses in city currently
