TTT NEWS NETWORK
KOLKATA, 15 SEPTEMBER 2023:
As the last iconic air conditioned red double- decker bus rolled out of the Marol depot of BrihanMumabi Electricity Supply and Public Transport, it marked an end of an era as it has become part and parcel of the life of the tinsel town since the past eight decades.
At present there are seven double decker buses including three open double decker buses in the fleet of Bihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Public Transport (BEST).
Though the AC double decker buses have been withdrwan from today, the three open double decker buses will be withdrwan from 5 October 2023.
The open double decker buses were used for sightseeing by the tourists since the 1990s.
It was part of the Mumbai heritage. Once upon a time there was a fleet of 900 double decker buses of BEST. Since 2008 it has stopped procurement of its iconic buses citing high costs as reasons.
Most of these buses are over 15 years old and hence withdrwan besides the high cost of operations.
Twitter is flooded with the video clips and nostalgic comments from the netizens of Mumbai as the last red bus with red, white and yellow ballons rolled out of the depot today. Even Anand Mahindra has also posted a tweet about his nostalgic feelings of the red iconic double decker buses.
The commuters body has urged state chief minister Eknath Shinde, tourism minister and top officials of BEST to preserve at least two iconic red double decker buses as heritage of the commercial capital of the country.
The double decker buses have been introduced into the transport system of Bombay way back in 1937. Sequences of several Bolywood movies have been shoot in this iconic red double decker buses buses.
From block buster movie of Amitabh Bachchan, Sashi Kapoor starrer Shan to Akhshay Kumar’s Mohra, Sunny Deol’s Arjun, Tare Zameen Par etc are some of the most popular movie scenes of Mumbai’s red iconic double decker buses.
BEST started replacing these iconic old buses with latest battery run green buses slowly after 2008.
The first battery operated electric AC double decker bus manufactured by Switch Mobility, of the Ashok Leyland Group was inducted by BEST on February this year. But these are all closed AC double decker buses.
https://x.com/mumbaiheritage/status/1702559875837141470?s=20
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