2012 MAY 07
Shri OP GUPTA
GM
BEST
Shri D KAPOOR
MD
MSRTC
Namaskar Mahoday,
An open letter, which you may give consideration in the public interest, or you may ignore in the interest of indiscipline and disorder.
A long time ago, there was a public bus service which was the best in India.
I had many years of real pleasant travelling as a passenger, first as a school boy, our school rented BEST single deckers as school buses way back in the 1970s, then, as a college student, then as one of the lakhs of daily passengers.
The drivers and conductors used to wear caps, shoes, and had their shirts buttoned.
The temperature and climate of Mumbai in those days was the same as now.
That was, a long time ago.
Amd though the examples are of BEST buses , their drivers., etc.,similar, if not same apply to the MSRTC.
Now the buses are so badly maintained, that a report shows just a few of the many examples.
In fact most buses are damaged in one way or another, almost all the buses with LED indicators are seen with route numbers and destination written in chalk, because the LED are gone case, in the same buses, the automatic doors are either not working, or they have been tied by the staff because the drivers do not want to wait for them entry and exit doors to open and close because they just screech to a halt from a fast speed, and then race off.
Not to mention the pathetic workmanship of the bus bodies, the seats are now giving way, not to mention again, the poor ergonomics, and so on.
And even though there is an internal document, the BEST Traffic manual, not a single employee has not only not bothered to read it, let alone follow it, forget about laws of the land
Nowadays, the name has remained, BEST, but somewhere down the line, the service quality has given way to excuses, excuses, excuses.
Read what has happened
The unnamed BEST official says
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Some officials from the transport undertaking admitted there was a need to discipline the drivers. A BEST committee member claimed that cases sometimes resulted in acquittals because witnesses failed to come forward to testify against the driver. Consumer rights activists have demanded that BEST buses should have speed governors and the department has already begun the process of indigenously manufacturing "speed-limit gadgets" to control the speed of the bus.
BEST officials claimed the number of fatal accidents has dropped and only seasoned/trained drivers are deployed on important routes.
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Unfortunately the truth and fact is that witnesses are intimidated, threatened, and pressurised not to attend the hearings in the BEST depots if at all these are held, forget about in the Courts, let alone give evidence.
Further, what is meant by only seasoned / trained drivers are deployed on important routes.
All routes are equally important.
And does that mean the rest are untrained, and left to terrorise passengers, pedestrians, other road users.
Why aren't drivers trained.
What is this training, breaking all signals all times of day, not stopping within 600 mm of the bus stops, cutting lanes, rash driving, reckless driving, etc
Aren't licensed drivers by definition supposed to be trained, and supposed to follow traffic rules.
And these are only the few offenses which are reported, how about the thousands of unreported and worse, ignored incidents which seen day and night on our roads.
Excuse me, kindly excuse the word, but what is this c@@@p
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No reference to total lack of complying to traffic rules
Report from 2008
A public service, which has a responsibility of lakhs of passengers, has no qualms in hiring untrained, partially trained, poorly trained drivers, and after that, has no qualms in not bringing them to book in case of rash, reckless, dangerous driving, which mostly go unreported
And if you observe around, when you are on the roads in Mumbai, you will see that
01 The drivers, trained, untrained, young, old, experienced, inexperienced, do not follow any traffic rules, and they are unleashed on the Citizens of Mumbai, endangering liuves, limbs, property.
Is this not corruption of a high order
02 They drivers do not stop at the bus stops, agin endangering the waiting passengers's lives, blocking traffic, wasting fuel because so many vehicles are blocked, and smooth flow of traffic is affected
03 The drivers and conductors do not wear the complete uniform, most of them wear sandals or chappals, keep their shirt buttons open, I have seen a driver of the BEST AC bus, driving with a vest, banian, on duty.
Such things give a very very poor impression of the BEST to any body, apart from tourists.
I have seen drivers of Karachi's Green Bus Service, wearing ties, and caps, even though the temperatures there are as high as in Mumbai in APR.
04 The errant BESTdrivers who knowingly violate traffic rules are confident that neither the BEST administration and neither the MTP will take any effective punitive action on them, so they continue to carry on their dangerous driving
05 If at all the driver is caught, at the hearing, the witnesses and victims are made out to be the offender, this has been seen time and again, unions, fellow staff are not only on their side of the errant driver, but make sure the victim is made to get of the exit very fast
06 The MTP deliberately ignore violations by the BEST drivers, even while taking action for say, breaking signals by LMV, and so on, thereby further emboldening their arrogance
Thanqx.
Jagdeep DESAI
Secretary
Founder Trustee
Forum for Improving Quality of Life in Mumbai Suburbs
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Bus driver was at fault, says BEST
Somit Sen, TNN | Apr 7, 2012, 05.48AM IST The driver of the BEST double-decker was responsible for Friday's mishap in Bandra (E) and there was nothing wrong with the bus, said senior officials of the transport undertaking. With the Kalanagar turn (from Bandra-Kurla Complex, towards the Western Express Highway) coming at a sharp angle, any speed above 20 kmph could result in a bus tipping over, said BEST general manager Om Prakash Gupta. Speaking to TOI, Gupta blamed the driver, Jalimdar Bhosle, for the accident, alleging that he was driving the bus at a much higher speed in a bid to get past the Kalanagar signal. "The signal had just turned amber from green. The driver, who was in a tearing hurry, swerved the vehicle and it overturned," he explained, adding that an inquiry would be conducted against the driver for alleged rash and negligent driving. Experience was also not on Bhosle's side. "He is not a seasoned driver and has only over two years' experience," said Gupta. "Whenever a bus takes a turn at a signal, the turning radius plays a key role. The driver has to use his judgment, reduce the speed of the vehicle and then turn the vehicle accordingly. This will ensure that the bus's centre of gravity is not displaced."
A senior BEST official from the engineering department said there was no problem with the vehicle. "We inspected the bus on the spot and found out that the mishap was not caused by any technical problem. It is a case of human error and the driver is to be blamed (for the accident)," the official said. Experts in the transport body say the centre of gravity of a BEST double-decker, weighing around 7,600kg, is at the bottom of the vehicle. "The driver has to bear in mind that passengers are not inconvenienced when brakes are applied or when he changes gears and accelerates on an empty road," one of them said. However, BEST committee member Ravi Raja alleged that this was rarely the case as reckless driving was rampant, drivers jumped signals frequently and also went beyond permissible speed limits. "I have been in the committee for two decades , but have never heard of a double-decker overturning. This is alarming," he said. Another committee member, Dilip Patel, demanded that the double-decker buses be manned by only experienced drivers.
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BEST has worst finance, MSRTC bad busesPublished: Friday, Apr 6, 2012, 9:30 IST | Updated: Friday, Apr 6, 2012, 0:55 IST By DNA Correspondent | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA |
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The latest public transport report card released by the Union ministry has ranked BEST as the second highest loss-making body in the country and the MSRTC as the country's third-highest profit making body. The report also says that accidents have gone up on both the fleets. The BEST has recently proposed a fare hike and also cut down on 15 loss-making routes to correct its finances. Among the three highest loss-making SRTUs, Delhi Transport leads the bandwagon with highest loss of Rs2,286.54 crore, followed by BEST's Rs381.38 crore and Andra Pradesh's state transport of Rs268.81 crore. A BEST committee member said that BEST was now looking at various other options from where they could raise money and pull the undertaking out of the red. The MSRTC, however, fares badly when it comes to using its buses as its fleet of over-aged buses has increased from 0.6% in 2010 to 10.4% in 2011. The productivity of the transport undertakings, to a large extent, depends on the age profile of their bus fleet and the policy adopted for scrapping of over-aged buses. "One cannot compare city and state buses. We are planning to improve and upgrade the fleet. This year we are planning to induct new fleet of semi-sleeper Volvos, new Sheetals, new Parivartans with better design and seats,'' Deepak Kapoor, managing director of MSRTC told DNA. >>>
City Day after Bandra accident which left biker dead, BEST suspends rash driver Posted On Saturday, April 07, 2012 at 10:11:26 PM | | The management of the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST), on Saturday, suspended the driver of the double decker bus that toppled at Bandra on Friday killing one person, for reckless driving.
The double-decker BEST bus, route no 310, toppled as its driver was speeding towards the Bandra railway station. The accident which took place at Kalanagar, left a motorcyclist, Harish Pillai, dead.
Thirty one passengers were injured in the incident, of these 16 were admitted in Bhabha Hospital. Ten were discharged immediately after treatment. Five people are in private hospitals.
"The bus driver, Jallinder Bhosle, has been found responsible for the accident. On Friday BEST authorities investigated all facts and then suspended him. The accident took place due to speeding at a turn," said OP Gupta, general manager, BEST.
The driver was arrested by the Kherwadi police. According to sources from BEST, he was recruited on temporary daily wage basis during the drivers' strike in 2007, when the BEST administration recruited about 750 drivers who were not properly trained. He was made permanent in June 2010, according to Gupta. In the past three months, the BEST has taken action against about 500 employees, including drivers, for indisciplinary behaviour.
There are 4,699 buses in BEST's fleet, of which 4,000 ply in the city and suburbs every day, and there are about 12,000 drivers, including permanent and temporary drivers.
"These temporary drivers don't have proper training, but are tested by the administration during recruitment. They don't have enough knowledge of heavy vehicle driving," admitted Ravi Raja, a BEST committee member.
"Though the BEST claims that there were fewer accidents involving their buses this year, there were 32 fatal accidents, 135 serious and 400 minor accidents. Sixty five cases of collision were reported," he added.
Victim's family wants BEST driver to be punished
"Someone else's negligence ruined our lives. The reckless BEST bus driver should be punished," said KK Nambiar, accident victim Harish's uncle. Harish, 31, was a BPO employee. "Harish used to ride a bike for many years. He always rode it very carefully. The BEST bus driver's carelessness cost him his life," Nambiar said.
Harish's younger brother, Santosh said, "We are not in a position to pursue the case, but the BEST has to punish the driver. Harish was to get married on May 3." Harish's father Ravindran was not in a position to speak. On Saturday he collected the body from Cooper hospital, and Harish was cremated at Gorai crematorium.
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