MUMBAI, APRIL 16: In a year's time, the bright postal red colour that has made the buses of Bombay Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking a landmark in the city, will give way to the saffron tinge.A notification from the state government's transport ministry will soon come into force changing the colour of all municipal transport buses to saffron.Three years ago, if Pramod Navalkar as transport minister had saffron bands painted on all buses of Maharashtra State Regional Transport Corporation (MSRTC), then another former transport minister Divakar Raote has gone the whole hog. Buses in full saffron, no less.The draft notification issued by the state transport department on February 12 gave a month's time for people to register their objections. The ministry has received objections only from two parties, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC).``What is the problem with saffron coloured buses? Don't bother about the paint scheme, just worryabout the quality of service and the behaviour of the staff,'' advised former transport minister Divakar Raote, during whose tenure the notification was issued. Raote said he had only implemented what had been suggested by the earlier transport minister Navalkar.Raote said that the undertaking would not be incurring any additional cost, since the buses were being painted in a phased manner only when they came up for their annual inspection by the Regional Transport Office (RTO).``The public is all for it, they haven't objected. After all nobody checks the colour of the bus before they board it,'' Raote said. The Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) has already begun implementing this notification, he said.However, VHP President in Mumbai Ashok Chowgule denied objecting against the notification. ``We welcome the saffron colour. After all it is not the colour of a religion but of a civilisation.''The saffron rule applies only to city buses since the transport rule book makes the postal red colourmandatory for inter-city buses. Last year, the RTO disallowed 40 saffron painted TMC buses from plying outside the city.However, managements of both the BEST and MSRTC said they were yet to receive official word on repainting their buses. ``We have not received any official word on repainting the buses,'' a BEST spokesperson told this newspaper.The response from the state transport corporation was similar. ``The issue will first have to be raised before our board of directors after which it is passed and forwarded to the Mechanical Engineer's department,'' an MSRTC spokesperson informed.The MSRTC has a fleet of 16,500 buses distributed among depots all over the state. These include some 150 deluxe buses, 750 semi-luxury and six air conditioned buses while the bulk of the fleet comprises the ordinary buses.The ordinary buses are pale cream on top and red at the bottom, with a saffron band around the windows. These bands which were pale cream, were painted saffron at Navalkar's instance in1996.However, painting the entire fleet will take at least a year, after the colour scheme is approved by the transport commissioner.``We can repaint the buses only after they come for their annual RTO inspection,'' a senior MSRTC official said, adding that the new scheme would be `a policy decision to be taken by the corporation.'
