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King Long passengers take fire in their stride

The fire that gutted one of the King Long buses on Thursday evening did not prove to be a deterrent for the regular passengers used to travelling by the comfortable and plush AC bus.

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The fire that gutted one of the King Long buses on Thursday evening did not prove to be a deterrent for the regular passengers used to travelling by the comfortable and plush AC bus.   

“There was the usual crowd on the bus on Friday morning. We did have a thorough discussion about the fire. We spoke on all issues right up to the in-built safety measures in the bus,” said a resident of Thane.

A day after BEST’s general manager Uttam Khobragade voiced his plan of phasing out the existing fleet of 51 Starbus by King Long, a major fire broke out in one of the buses destroying its upholstery and the glass windows.

Khobragade said, “Nobody was hurt in the fire. However, the exact cause needs to be evaluated - whether it was due to some technical, mechanical or electrical fault.” The BEST undertaking plans to conduct a joint investigation with the manufacturing team of King Long in Chandigarh.

A well-equipped dashboard alerted the driver Duttatrey Wanzare of the fire. “The bus was returning empty from Cadbury junction in Thane to Anik depot in Trombay. The buzzer started to go off and Wanzare along with conductor Dilip Kamble got in action and immediately stopped the bus on the side of the road.

They turned off the main switch to stop the supply of gas to the engine and rushed out,” said Khobragade, adding, that the driver barely gets a few minutes to act once the buzzer goes and the ‘stop’ button glows.

In order to avoid such a mishap, the undertaking has decided to simultaneously examine the entire fleet of 19 other King Long buses and have also decided to put the proposal of buying another 40 buses on hold.

“When there were reports of fire in the ultra-low floor Starbus of BEST, we were busy finalising our contract with King Long. However, if investigations reveal that the fire had occurred due to an in-built fault, we will definitely terminate the contract and also return the existing buses in the fleet,” said Pravin Chheda, BEST chairman.
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