Seven Years After Induction Of First E-bus, BEST Begins Driver Training At Own Facility
The first e-bus was inducted into the BEST fleet in November 2017. Most e-buses have automatic transmission and do not have clutch like conventional manual transmission buses.
More than seven years after inducting its first electric bus, the civic-run Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport undertaking has started training drivers at Dindoshi centre in north Mumbai for the changes in technology the vehicles come with, an official said on Sunday.
The trigger apparently is the accident of a 12-metre electric bus on the congested SG Barve Marg in Kurla West on December 9 in which nine persons died, several others were injured and more than 20 vehicles suffered damage.
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The driver of the vehicle had been deployed on the bus since December 1 after just three days of training, which some experts claimed may have been the cause of the accident. They had flagged “human error".
A panel of experts appointed by BEST after the accident had recommended that private bus operators deploy a couple of e-buses to facilitate the training of drivers.
The first e-bus was inducted into the BEST fleet in November 2017. Most e-buses have automatic transmission and do not have clutch like conventional manual transmission buses, the official said.
“The Dindoshi facility used to train drivers for diesel buses. Now, an old 12-metre e-bus from Olectra has been deployed for training purposes. It has been made into a dual-control bus fitted with a secondary brake system on the left side for effective control and has been approved by the RTO for exclusive drive training," the official said.
The bus has been provided by EveyTrans Private Limited, which has bagged two separate contracts for supplying 2100 and 2400 buses, respectively, to BEST, the official said, adding the training of drivers on wet lease from private operators has commenced.
“The induction of new e-buses, pending for the last three months, is now expected to begin. Due to this, 90 new buses were parked at Vikhroli and Ghatkopar depots. Sixty of these had been registered, while the process of the remaining is underway," he added.
This is expected to give relief to commuters as the induction of these e-buses will improve efficiency and increase the number of services, the official said.
“The number of training buses at Dindoshi now stands at six after the e-vehicle was deployed. The figure was 11 earlier, before coming down to five as buses get scrapped after the completion of their operational life," he said.
BEST, one of the country’s foremost public transporters which carries around 30 lakh passengers every day, due to financial constraints has been outsourcing services to private operators, who provide drivers.
At present, of the 2800 buses in its fleet, some 1950 are on wet lease from private operators. Of the 1950, some 700 are e-buses, officials said, with another 4500 e-buses to be added in time to come.
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