Mumbai: ‘Are AC double-deckers too delicate for standees?’

Seated passengers travel on one of the AC double-deckers on bus route no. 415

The new AC double-decker bus appears to have gotten in the habit of running into controversy. After 10 AC double-deckers were introduced on the crowded Andheri Station East-SEEPZ and Andheri Station East-Kurla Depot, passengers complained that the buses were not taking standees. A notice prohibiting passengers from travelling standing has been put up on the buses.

The buses were introduced on route no. 415 (Andheri Station East-SEEPZ) and route no. 332 (Andheri Station East-Kurla Depot). The buses' refusal to take passengers beyond seating limited their overall capacity, passengers complained. "What nonsense is this? Why are passengers not allowed to get into the bus and travel standing? Is the bus so delicate?" asked commuter Saurabh Joshi.

"Route numbers 415 and 332 are both heavy routes and they are crowded 24x7. The very idea of having double-deckers on these routes was to boost capacity and ferry more commuters. There is no point in having double-deckers if commuters would be limited to seating capacity. We might as well have only single-decker regular buses. At least standees can travel in them," said commuter Ravindra Mhase.

‘Poor management'

"The BEST management has gone from bad to worse. It had such a poor reputation and the people managing it do not seem to have any calibre, they made the organisation worse," said commuter Srinivas Ballal.

Sources said that as per Regional Transport Office (RTO) regulations, standee passengers are not allowed on the upper deck of double-deckers, but they can very well travel on the lower deck. There are no restrictions on standees on the lower deck. The notice addressed to commuters, a paper print-out, put up on Monday, near the rear staircase in the AC double-decker by the local bus depot stated that no standees are allowed on both decks. Bus conductors took passengers only as per the number of seats available.

Will solve this: BEST

BEST officials said that the prohibition was an error and that they were rectifying it. "Standee passengers are allowed on the lower deck and we are correcting the signage," a BEST spokesperson said. Commuters at Bandra and Kurla bus stops have been disappointed for two weeks as the AC double-deckers are unable to reach Kurla via route no. 310 because they are too high and facing other technical issues. The BEST has been running both double-deckers and single-deckers on the same route, with the double-deckers plying on a limited version of the route. At 4.75 m, the new AC double-deckers are taller than their predecessors, which were 4.38 m in height.

10
Double-deckers dedicated to the two routes