BEST's costly Cerita busses are being converted for enhanced performance

The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking (BEST) has opted for a Jugaad (a hack or innovation) for managing its 'problematic' air-conditioned fleet of Cerita (popularly known as King Long). BEST is now converting the Ceritas into non air conditioned ones, enhancing its overall life.

Cerita buses were bought in the year 2007-2008 for Rs63 lakhs each. However, frequent breakdowns, heavy maintainace, and non-functional air-conditioners caused BEST huge losses.

"In the last 5-6 years we scrapped around 1,000 buses, but there weren't any additions to the fleet. This has a cascading effect on the operations too as lesser buses will be available to ferry people. As part of the plans, 5 Cerita buses will be converted into non air conditioned options and performance and financial aspects will be studied before a decision is taken to convert the rest of the fleet," said Dr Jagdish Patil, general manager of BEST.

BEST has a total of 284 of these air conditioned Cerita buses in its fleet, of which two buses have already got converted and hit the roads. Work is underway at BEST's Dadar workshop to retrofit the third bus. In the next few months, two more will go through the process.

At the moment, BEST manages a fleet of 3,888 buses, which includes 120 double deck buses and 284 Cerita buses. It is only now that the BEST has placed an order with Tata Motors to purchase 303 single deck buses. During this financial year, around 180 of them will join BEST's fleet as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation is paying Rs90 crore to the undertaking, and if the civic body gives grant to BEST next year too, another 120 will be bought. "Each of these new single deck buses are for Rs53 lakh with a life of around 15 years," added Dr Patil.

On the other hand, the conversion being done on Cerita busses now entails an additional cost of Rs8-10 lakhs. "Bus body is replaced along with interior and seats in our own facility," said another BEST official, still these converted buses can be operated only for another 7-8 years.

Had it not been converted, the buses were almost headed towards a scrapyard. In fact, the bus undertaking had also invited private players to buy some of the buses, but had not received any response. Although passengers have given a thumbs up to the converted buses, cash strapped BEST officials are cautious in their approach.

Engine of usual single deck buses are of 150-180 horsepower (HP) as compared to 240 HP for Cerita buses. This much HP is needed even to operate air-conditioning system, now that it has been removed there's more power available for the bus than needed. "Here, fuel efficiency gets impacted.

So, we need to study if with our limited financial resources can this alternative proves successful or not," added Dr Patil. Additionally, with these Cerita buses towards the end of their life, also requires more maintenance cost. Therefore, it is only after a few months, depending upon the outcome of cost analysis, picture will be clear if another of the Indian Jugaad will be a hit or a miss.