20230126 BEST bus in flames! Lucky escape for 25 commuters in Mumbai
India Jan 26 2023 “Automobile & Railway”
Dead : dead 0 or unknown Burnout : 0 or unknown Injured : injured 0 or unknown
BEST bus in flames! Lucky escape for 25 commuters in Mumbai
Updated: 2023-01-26
MUMBAI: At least 25 passengers had a miraculous escape after a BEST bus caught fire at the busy Bandra junction on S V Road around 1.15 pm on Wednesday.
While nobody was injured, the fire spread across the bus, burning passenger seats and charring the interiors of the vehicle. The bus driver noticed a spark in the gear box and sounded an alarm after which the conductor evacuated commuters on board. Traffic on the busy road was affected as the Santacruz-bound bus went up in flames.
A former BEST panel member said that this highlights the need for proper maintenance of wet-lease buses run by private contractors. Former BEST panel members have demanded technical inspection of all buses as many are operated by private operators and these buses need to be checked for any “technical flaws” before they leave the depot.
BEST general manager Lokesh Chandra said that a show-cause notice has been sent to the private agency which operated the bus on wet lease model. “It was a non-AC CNG bus on route C-51 and I have ordered an inquiry to ascertain the cause of the fire,” Chandra said.
Former panel member Ravi Raja from Congress said: “It is a serious incident as safety of passengers should be our priority. It exposes lack of maintenance of our buses and by doing so, we are putting commuter lives at risk.”
He demanded that BEST pull up the bus operator concerned and also supervise daily operations of all wet lease buses. More than 50% of the fleet of 3,600 buses are procured from private operators.
Another former senior BEST committee member, Sunil Ganacharya, said that the undertaking was cutting costs – capital costs of purchasing new buses, daily fuel expenses and maintenance costs – by procuring buses on wet lease. “But there were no checks on these private agencies. This is ridiculous. How can you merely provide rides to commuters at affordable fares as low as Rs 5 for 5 km and not give priority to their safety ?”
Ganacharya said that maintenance of buses should be a stringent criterion while signing contracts with private agencies. “And buses which are old and in a bad condition, should be taken off roads,” he added.
Last October, a fire broke out on a BEST bus on wet lease. The bus driver stopped the bus, vacated it and doused the fire using the fire extinguisher kept inside the bus.
In March 2021, a tragedy was averted when a BEST bus full of passengers caught fire in Bhandup (west). The driver stopped the bus on noticing smoke and the bus was evacuated. No one was hurt.
Web Source: The Times of India