Inside BEST’s driver school, where every lesson begins with a crash

The BEST training centre at Dindoshi, Malad East, which has trained the undertaking’s drivers and conductors since 1997. (Express photo by Sankhadeep Banerjee)

Outside the classroom, the scrutiny over BEST has only intensified.

Three days ago, the day the undertaking celebrated its 79th Foundation Day, Jayshri Bhanaji Parmar, a 56-year-old BMC sanitation worker, was crossing near Mulund check naka when a wet-lease bus on route 512 moved off at a green signal. The front right corner of the bus hit her and the right tyre ran over her. The driver and conductor, both employed by a wet-lease contractor, were taken to Mulund police station.

Parmar’s death came a day after BEST announced its latest safety drive, a three-day programme for the 5,200 contract drivers operating its 2,553 wet-lease buses.

BEST recorded 24 deaths in accidents involving its buses in 2024-25, and 24 again in 2025-26. Seven people have died since January. What stands out is not the annual total, which has held steady, but the clustering. More than 19 major and minor accidents in the past three months alone, four of them fatal.

Inside the classroom at Dindoshi, where recent crashes have become case studies. (Express photo by Sankhadeep Banerjee)

Courts have questioned whether the training is adequate. In a 2026 bail order involving a driver in the Kurla crash, the Bombay High Court criticised the lack of on-road training. In July, while framing culpable homicide charges in the 2025 Bhandup crash case, it returned to the same concern.

The Indian Express spent two days at the Dindoshi centre in Malad East to see what it now takes to earn the right to drive one of Mumbai’s buses. What emerges is a system running at two speeds. A new recruit gets 28 days before he carries a passenger. Most of the recent fatal crashes have involved drivers who have been on the road for years, and what BEST has added for them, after last month’s death in Mankhurd, is a three-day refresher in half-hour slots before the shift.

An instructor watches a driver during a refresher session at a BEST depot. (Express photo by Sankhadeep Banerjee)

What 28 days look like

Beside the Dindoshi depot, the centre has trained BEST drivers and conductors since 1997. The broad structure of the programme remains unchanged. What has changed is that recent accidents now shape much of what is taught inside its classrooms. The centre trained 633 wet-lease drivers in the first half of 2026, after training 5,840 in 2025.

“After any major accident, I visit the site, examine traffic CCTV footage, understand the cause and present my observations to the trainees,” says Shirodkar, who has spent three decades in BEST’s traffic department. “Walking them through the sequence of events helps them understand what could have prevented the accident.”

Inside BEST’s driver school, where every lesson begins with a crash

Read: https://t.co/inZqf5oMQv pic.twitter.com/xZruoxIjtl

— The Indian Express (@IndianExpress) August 10, 2026

https://platform.x.com/widgets.js

For six days, new recruits are taught everything from BEST’s history and traffic regulations to fire safety, fuel conservation and the mechanics of a bus. One morning, instructor Madhav Nandurkar stands before a whiteboard explaining how an engine works.

“Just as different departments in a hospital care for different organs, yet together sustain the human body, components such as the radiator, double-clutch gear and other parts work in unison to form a complete compact engine system,” he tells the class.

BEST buses at the Andheri depot in Mumbai. The undertaking’s 2,553 wet-lease buses are operated by contract drivers, who now get a three-day refresher course after each fatal crash. (Express photo by Sankhadeep Banerjee)

The lessons are punctuated by videos of blind spots, overspeeding and distracted driving. After each clip, the instructor stops to take apart every decision the driver made: where his eyes should have been, whether he could have slowed earlier and what the pedestrian was doing. There are no hurried answers.

The six-day classroom course ends with an unlikely stop. The BEST museum at Anik depot, where recruits are introduced to the undertaking’s nearly eight-decade history before they go anywhere near its traffic.

After the theory comes what instructors consider the real test. Twenty-one days behind the wheel.

Depending on the contractor they will work for, trainees are assigned electric, CNG or diesel buses. Each driver within four batches of 16 receive at least 30 minutes of on-the-wheel instruction each day.

Inside one training bus, there is little room for error. The trainee grips the wheel while the instructor sits slightly behind him on the left, a notepad on his lap. Near his right foot is an emergency braking system that allows him to stop the bus if a mistake turns dangerous.

Recruits are taught the workings of a bus engine at BEST’s driving training school in Dindoshi, Malad East. (Express photo by Sankhadeep Banerjee)

The instructions come in quick succession.

“Left.”

“Straight.”

“Watch the vehicle ahead.”

“Reverse.”

Within the depot, trainees repeat the manoeuvres until they become instinctive. Pulling into makeshift bus stops, negotiating tight turns and reversing between two drums. Only when instructors are satisfied do they move onto public roads.

On the 22nd day, every trainee is examined by a panel comprising the instructor, a traffic-grade officer and an engineer. Instructors say trainees must score at least 50 per cent in every category to qualify.

Not everyone gets there. BEST verifies a heavy vehicle licence, a public service vehicle badge, a medical fitness certificate and a secondary-school qualification before a candidate is admitted. Officials say two or three trainees in every batch usually drop out because of language barriers or difficulty in keeping up.

Inside the classroom at Dindoshi, where recent crashes have become case studies. (Express photo by Sankhadeep Banerjee)

How much has changed is clear to those doing the course twice. A 25-year-old who worked with BEST earlier and has returned after a gap is going through the new recruit programme again, and says it has become noticeably stricter.

“In 2023, I had three days of classroom training and 15 days of wheel experience at the Majas depot. Now the course includes accident prevention, technical safety and fire-prevention training,” he says.

That is four weeks before a recruit carries his first passenger. For the men already carrying them, the arithmetic is different.

The men on the road

After last month’s crash in Mankhurd, in which a 65-year-old farmer was killed and 10 others injured, BEST announced a three-day safety training programme for contract drivers employed by operators including Mateshwari, Daga Group, PMI and Olectra. Conducted across its 27 depots and at Dindoshi, the sessions are aimed at drivers who spend their days navigating Mumbai’s roads.

Every morning before reporting for duty, drivers attend a half-hour session at their depots. They inspect their buses inside and out, check tyre pressure and the gear system, then run through the same drums and makeshift bus stops the recruits use. The objective, says a bus inspector overseeing one such session, is not to teach them how to drive but to reinforce good habits: lane discipline, speed limits, safe following distances and avoiding mobile phones while driving.

Convincing experienced drivers they need any of it has not been easy. “So far it has been slightly difficult to get drivers to come in regularly because they believe that they are already plying vehicles and don’t need further training. But the numbers are increasing so far,” the inspector says.

Unlearning the gear lever

For many of them, the biggest challenge is not Mumbai’s traffic. It is the bus itself.

Electric buses respond differently from the diesel and CNG vehicles many have driven for decades. Although BEST inducted its first electric bus more than seven years ago, dedicated EV training at Dindoshi began only in March 2025, after the 2024 Kurla crash on SG Barve Marg that killed nine. The training framework remains largely the same, with additional sessions on battery systems, electric-bus operations and fire extinguishers.

“Drivers usually adapt to electric buses within a few days,” says instructor Sandeep Khanvilkar. “But in high-stress situations, some revert to old habits. A driver may instinctively press the accelerator harder than intended or reach for a gear lever that does not exist in an automatic electric bus.”

Veteran driver Guneram Raman Chavan, 57, who spent nearly 15 years driving Volvo tourist buses, describes electric buses as “kaach bangdya”, or glass bangles.

“They respond instantly. Even a light touch on the accelerator can make the bus move faster than expected,” he says. They want a far gentler foot than a diesel or CNG bus, he explains.

Two versions of the same crash

Officials acknowledge that training alone has its limits. Shirodkar says drivers are still caught chewing tobacco and listening to music behind the wheel, and that the phone is the hardest habit to break.

“We repeatedly instruct drivers to switch off their phones while driving, and notices are issued every month. Yet inspectors still catch at least three drivers violating the rule every day,” he says. “We can train them, but how much they internalise is ultimately beyond our control.”

Drivers say behaviour is only part of the story.

A driver employed by a wet-lease contractor since 2022 says he has repeatedly reported mechanical faults and breakdowns, only for the repairs to hold briefly before the same problems return. He describes the operators as callous.

“Contractors wash their hands of accountability after accidents and are only concerned about keeping buses on the road,” he says, speaking on condition of anonymity and fearing consequences if he or his employer were identified.

Others echo him, saying they stay on in the hope of eventually being absorbed into BEST’s permanent workforce.

What follows a crash reflects the same divide. Drivers face criminal proceedings and internal disciplinary action. BEST drivers involved in minor incidents are treated as summary cases, can be suspended for up to seven days and must undergo accident-prevention training. Wet-lease drivers are suspended pending inquiry and return only after being cleared. Contractors receive a show-cause notice and a Rs 50,000 penalty.

One driver involved in a recent fatal crash says BEST and the police recorded his statements, but nobody has told him whether he can return to work.

Asked whether the training is adequate, BEST committee chairperson Trushna Vishwasrao says the model is substantial but needs greater emphasis on a driver’s attitude, mental peace and composure under pressure.

At Dindoshi, the fullest version of that training goes to the men who have not yet driven a BEST bus in Mumbai. The men driving them now get three mornings of it, and have to be persuaded to turn up.

Rauf Karim Aga, 57, who has driven in India and abroad for more than two decades, is one of the new recruits. He says he goes home each day and tells his daughters what he has learnt: fuel conservation, how a bus works, the history of BEST.

“It feels like getting a second chance at a classroom,” he says.