The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Under-taking (BEST) on Wednesday said it was taking all its 400 wet-leased CNG buses off Mumbai roads with immediate effect after one of these buses caught fire in Andheri earlier in the day. With this, three incidents of such buses catching fire have been reported within one month. In view of these incidents involving TATA CNG buses operated by M/S Mateshwari Limited, BEST has decided to take all 400 buses off roads till the OEM (original manufacturer) and operator take necessary corrective measures to ensure that such incidents do not happen in future, said BEST General Manager Lokesh Chandra in a statement. “Though it may cause inconvenience to commuters but public safety is of utmost importance to BEST and we cannot compromise on that. There may be some changes in the (bus) schedule due to this. Commuters may keep this in mind while planning there journey for the next few days," he added. This comes on a day TATA CNG bus was gutted in fire at the Andheri BEST bus depot around 6.55 pm. No one was injured in the incident. Officials said the bus would ply on the Andheri SEEPZ route. On January 25 and February 11 as well, TATA CNG buses operated by Mateshwari Limited had caught fire but no injuries were reported, said BEST. The BEST, which ferries nearly 35 lakh passengers daily, has 3,619 buses in its fleet. They include 2,927 CNG-run buses, 266 diesel-run buses and 426 electric buses. Of the 2,927 CNG-run buses, 400 are operated on the wet lease model. Under wet lease, the buses are owned, maintained and driven by contractors that are paid a sum by BEST. As per the contract between the operator and BEST, the former is responsible for the maintenance of the buses and ensure their safety.
