150 new buses unfit to run on city streets: BEST

The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking’s general manager OP Gupta, on Tuesday, said that out of the 221 new buses that the city’s largest bus service had received two months ago under JNNURM, about 150 Ashok Leyland buses were found not eligible to ply on city streets as they did not adhere to the technical specifications in the tender.

This, in turn, resulted in further delay in replacing the old fleet of buses with the new ones, as per plan.

Talking with DNA on Tuesday, Gupta said that the buses “do not conform to the technical requirements of the tender by the BEST”.

“They were found deficient. Thus, we did not formally receive them,” he said.

He added that, as per procedure, the BEST conducts a pre-delivery inspection on the new buses that it buys, and it was at this stage that the problem was discovered. Bus manufacturer — Ashok Leyland — was then asked to modify them as per the BEST Undertaking’s requirements.

And he complied. However, 40 buses continue to await modification as per the BEST’s requirements.

Gupta did not give an estimate for the induction of the new buses into the fleet. Under JNNURM, the undertaking was supposed to get 1,000 new AC and non-AC buses.

Half the price burden was being shared by the BEST and of the next half, 35% was shared by the Centre and 15% percent by the state government.