It's turning out to be Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking's biggest embarrassment! For over a year and-a-half now, the city's primary road transport utility has been trying to sell off 20 of its Cerita (make)—wrongly perceived to be Chinese-made King Long buses—without any luck.
How many Cerita buses does BEST have?
BEST has 285 such buses, but lacks enough spares. Moreover, these buses have a high rate of breakdowns—as high as 4.5 per day when they were plying—forcing BEST to sell them to cut down on losses.
When dna asked OP Gupta, BEST general manager, whether BEST was having trouble selling the first batch of 20 of these buses, he replied, 'Yes, no bidder'. These maintenance-heavy air-conditioned buses first officially hit Mumbai's roads on December 15, 2007.
Why nobody wants to buy them?
Officials said lack of spares and their warranty period having expired were the main reason no one wanted to buy these 'white elephants'.
"They are bigger than the normal buses. Secondly, important spares will have to be sourced from China. All in all, it looks like a lost cause," said a BEST official.
Why were they thought to be of Chinese make?
Incidentally, the Cerita brand of buses were made by a firm called JCBL in Lalru Mohali, Punjab. It has a few parts from Chinese bus major King Long, giving everybody the impression that these buses are from the Chinese company.
Seven years down the line, it remains BEST's biggest embarrassment with the fleet of 285 buses now idling in its depots without requisite spare parts.
What's BEST's breakdown record now?
BEST, in the past couple of years, has been able to bring down the number of vehicles (from among its average fleet of 3,878, excluding Cerita brand) breaking down on roads from 64 buses per day (1.57%) to 57 per day (1.35%).
Its 'King Long' buses saw the highest number of breakdowns with an RTI reply showing that between January 2010 and June 2012 there were 4,037 breakdowns.
Number of Cerita 'King Long' buses with BEST: 285
Date they were inducted into BEST: - Dec 15, 2007
Cost of each bus: Rs 63 lakh
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