Troublesome King Long buses, costing Rs63 lakh each, are up for sale. But will anybody buy the junk?
After numerous bumpy rides and breakdowns, an embarrassed Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking finally readies to sell its King Long buses in phases.
Known as King Long buses, but actually they are Cerita buses, the 285 AC buses have had the highest number of breakdowns among BEST buses.
An RTI query showed that there were 4,037 breakdowns between January 2010 and June 2012."We are working towards phasing out the air-conditioned King Long buses that are the most troublesome. In the first phase, we may sell 30 to 40 King Long buses, but we need to recheck how many can we actual remove from our fleet," said Ashok Patil, chairman of BEST.
The plan is to phase out the air-condition fleet in the next five to seven years and replace it by AC buses of other manufacturers that have better performance and lesser maintenance costs.
"The sale will be through the tender system. We are yet to put it up and later it will be presented before the BEST committee for approval," said an official. "Let us see how many buyers show interest in buying these buses and how many are sold. If there are no takers, then we will have to see how to scrap it."
The BEST procured these buses, which cost Rs63 lakh each, under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. Mercedes Benz and Volvo manufacturers have a price tag ranging between Rs75 lakh and Rs1.25 crore for their AC bus.
The BEST started its AC buses on December 15, 2007. The move was aimed at making office-goers take the public transport instead of their cars. But about six months later, drivers started complaining about the bus's inferior technicalities and commuters bore the brunt of breakdowns which was almost eight to 10 a day. Lack of spares for these buses meant that most of them gathered dust at depots for days.
Even as BEST's data showed that the number of vehicles breaking down has come down from 64 buses per day, or 1.57% of the average fleet of 3,878 since last year to 57 buses a day or 1.35% of the fleet, the figures with the so-called King Long's remained unchanged. As the buses are able to cover only about 60% of their running costs, the BEST has scrapped four routes.
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