: Mumbais iconic double-decker buses all set for comeback in electric avatar #IndiaNEWS #India Mumbai: Mumbais iconic double-decker buses are set for a comeback in an electric avatar with a Brihanmumbai

Mumbais iconic double-decker buses all set for comeback in electric avatar #IndiaNEWS #India
Mumbai: Mumbais iconic double-decker buses are set for a comeback in an electric avatar with a Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking official stating that their numbers will match the highs of the 1990s by next year.
The financial capital is the last urban area where these double-deckers are still running, though they were once found in robust numbers in Kolkata, Bengaluru, Delhi, Thiruvananthapuram and Chennai, among other cities, officials said.
According to officials, BEST had the highest number of double decker buses in 1990, before the figures started dipping post 1995. By 2006, the citys premier road transport utility had 225 double-deckers as losses began to mount and operating costs went north.
There are some 50 left in Mumbai, most of these plying in the southern part of the city and some being used to give heritage tours to tourists. This existing batch was introduced in 2007 and would soon go off the roads at the end of their codal (operational) life, officials added.
A new electric air-conditioned double-decker bus was launched last week, a first for India, with BEST general manager Lokesh Chandra telling PTI it would hit the roads from September.
Two bus contractors will give BEST 900 electric double-deckers by the end of 2023. In the 1990s, we had over 900 double-decker buses and we are soon going to go back to the same situation by the end of next year, Chandra said.
These new buses will give people a comfortable ride and also improve the ridership of BEST to around 40 lakh per day from the current 33 lakh passengers per day, he added.
Mumbai witnesses heavy traffic and double-deckers, at 10. 5 metres, can carry 100 passengers against normal buses that ferry about 50. These double-deckers will help us regain carrying capacity of 1. 5 lakh seats per day, which were lost due to introduction of smaller buses, the BEST GM explained.
The new electric AC double-decker bus has a twin door-stairway arrangement, bigger windows, bucket seats, CCTVs, charging points for phones and laptops and public address systems.
As per SN Pendsays book The B. E. S. T Story, double-deckers were first introduced on the metropolis roads in 1937, some 11 years after fossil-fuel vehicles of the undertaking hit the roads.
Double-decker buses were introduced in 1937 in order to cope better with the growing traffic. The single-deck vehicle carried 36 passengers; the double-decker could take as many as 58. This, and its sheer size and look, made the double decker popular as soon as it was put on the roads, as per an excerpt from the book.
The double-deckers over the years underwent some design changes, starting with ones having a single blink cabin and sloping engine cover that looked like clones of Londons Routemaster.

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