MUMBAI, January 18: Remember Prabhudeva doing a boogie-woogie to the tune of Urvasi atop a see-through bus in the film Hum Se Hai Mukabala? Well, the novel concept of a transparent bus seems to have caught the BEST's (Bombay Electric Supply and Transport undertaking) eye.Starting next month, BEST will introduce two transparent single-decker buses exclusively for weekend heritage tours conducted by the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC).
Instead of the regular tin sheets, the body of the bus will be made using solidified poly-carbonate (salt based ester, a chemical) which will allow tourists an all-round view of the locales. Offering the convenience of open roof buses, the new see-through buses will have an uniform seating system.
Thus, travellers can go sight-seeing even as they remain seated in the bus. Solidified poly-carbonate not only allows transparency, but also acts as a safety shield in case of an impact. The material breaks into harmless pieces, just like the regular car
windscreens, thus ensuring security of passengers.
Highly placed BEST sources disclosed that two buses have been manufactured specially for the undertaking by a private bus manufacturer in Navi Mumbai and were procured in the last week of December 1997. However, thanks to the delay on part of the state traffic authorities and the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) in giving a formal approval for operating these buses, the vehicles are likely to hit the Mumbai roads only by mid-February.
The transparent buses are expected to fill in the vaccum left by the withdrawal of the BEST's open-roof double-decker buses, which were introduced early last year for heritage tours covering places of historical and tourist interest in South Mumbai.
The buses had a dual sitting system and a dual fare structure. Ordinary low-back seats were provided on the lower deck and the MTDC fare was Rs 20 per tour while high-back luxury seats were provided on the upper deck and the fare charged was Rs 50. But the buses failed to
enthuse tourists and were, therefore, reverted to ordinary routes sans the luxuries of a guide and a public address system.
Presently, one open-roof bus is being used on route number 1 from Colaba to Mahim in the mornings and another on route number 123 from R C Church to Vasantrao Naik Chowk in the evenings. Officials informed that the other two buses, Nilambari and Vibhavari, have been returned to the MTDC for their tours.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
