About 400 Tata CNG buses have been halted from operations by Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST), as three CNG buses caught fire in the city during the last two months.
In an official statement, BEST has noted that all 400 such buses will not be operational until the OEM and the operator take necessary actions. Notably, these buses are deployed by Mateshwari Urban Transport in Mumbai.
The statement read, “Though it may cause inconvenience to commuters but public safety is of utmost importance to BEST and we can not compromise on that. There may be some changes in the schedules due to this. Commuters may keep this in mind while planning the journey for the next few days.”
BEST has now suspended operations of around 660 buses, as the first fleet of 260 buses was suspended recently.
'Tata Motors is committed to offering safe and high-quality vehicles for public transport. The recent thermal incident in the CNG buses is very unfortunate. These buses are owned, maintained and operated by M/S Mateshwari Ltd. under a separate commercial contract with BEST, without any involvement of Tata Motors. It is understood that the crew (drivers & conductors) is the employee of M/s Mateshwari Ltd. While we are unable to comment anything conclusively on the causes behind this unfortunate incident, there may be multiple reasons relating to maintenance, operations, etc. We are coordinating with BEST and M/s Mateshwari to investigate the incident thoroughly and take that corrective action after proper diagnosis. Our team of experts has already begun working on this and we assure Mumbaikars of speedy resolution,' Tata's official statement.
The first bus fire occurred on January 25 when a CNG bus operating on the C-51 route caught fire and was completely charred. The second CNG bus fire incident took place on February 11 at Chakala junction, and the third incident took place yesterday when a CNG bus plying on route 415 caught fire.
Meanwhile, Switch Mobility has recently delivered the first set of EiV 22 electric double-decker buses to BEST. This first set of deliveries is part of the 200 electric double-decker buses order for BEST.
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