All the buses are equipped with foam-based fire extinguishers to handle such exigencies. Though we are probing the incident, we reassure that the Olectra-BYD electric buses are the safest."
BEST bus in Mulund
An electrical bus coming out of Mulund bus depot started emitting smoke following a short circuit on Monday morning. No one was injured in the incident. BEST officials clarified there was no fire, just smoke detected.
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Fire brigade officials said the smoke was controlled within a few minutes as the fire brigade reached the spot. Eyewitnesses said the incident occurred around 7 am on Devidayal Road when sparks were seen coming out of the bus. Bus staffers then quickly moved to first control it and simultaneously alerted the fire brigade. A BEST spokesperson said there was a small problem with bus no. 302 that was on its way to Sion but there was no fire. The smoke was detected from the bus brake liner.
The bus is a part of 10 state-of-the-art 9-Meter (eBuzz K7) electric buses that have been procured from Olectra-BYD as part of its 40 AC and non-AC bus orders on Gross Cost Contract basis. A statement from Olectra Greentech Limited, the manufacturers of the bus, stated, "The incident was the case of a slight heating up of the brake shoe due to air leakage in the right-side booster, a normal phenomenon in any vehicle, which resulted in overheating. All the buses are equipped with foam-based fire extinguishers to handle such exigencies. Though we are probing the incident, we reassure that the Olectra-BYD electric buses are the safest."
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