Don8217;t Rob Buses of Red

If they were asked for their opinions, Mumbaikars could list a thousand things they would like done to improve public transport in the city. It is a certain bet that painting BEST buses saffron is not one of them. When news first broke that Mumbai8217;s famous red buses were undergoing a colour change, the most common reaction was disbelief. This newspaper has now got it from the horse8217;s mouth that it is all too true. Divakar Raote, the fourth politician from the ruling Shiv Sena-BJP alliance to try his hand at running bus services, confirms it.

Helpfully, he points out that the new colour is described as 8220;downing glow.8221; Downing glow? Yes, as in sunset, as in the last light before it is doused in the Arabian sea. The new colour may say something about where the alliance is headed. But in no other way does it make sense. Raote may not know this but BEST buses are famous all over India. No other city has anything that comes close to the red buses in terms of safety, frequency, comfort and reliability. Allthose Mumbaikars, for example, who travelled on Delhi8217;s notorious killer Blue Line buses had reason to recall the reds in Mumbai very fondly. So those who argue, what difference does the colour make, have their answer. BEST buses have been red as long as anyone can remember and red is associated with the best city bus service in the country. Mind you, services could be even better. But changing the colour won8217;t help bring fares down or put more buses on the road or turn BEST8217;s losses into profits. And Raote is wrong to claim a change of colour in phases costs nothing extra. Any sweating painter will be able to set him right about the difference between renewing an existing colour and putting on a totally new one. If the government is serious about improving the BEST it should be thinking about the fare structure in light of higher diesel costs and new toll charges that BEST has to bear. Colour changes are crashingly irrelevant. When the city needs more roads, more trains and buses, encroachments andbottlenecks to be removed, all the Sena-BJP can think of is how to leave their mark on the exterior of buses. Nero fiddled when Rome burned. The latest version of dislocated thinking is politicians with paintbrushes in a city choked by pollution and congestion.