Mumbai: Smoking electric BEST bus causes a flutter on Monday morning

BEST bus in Mulund

An electrical bus coming out of Mulund bus depot started emitting smoke following a short circuit on Monday morning. No one was injured in the incident. BEST officials clarified there was no fire, just smoke detected.

Fire brigade officials said the smoke was controlled within a few minutes as the fire brigade reached the spot. Eyewitnesses said the incident occurred around 7 am on Devidayal Road when sparks were seen coming out of the bus. Bus staffers then quickly moved to first control it and simultaneously alerted the fire brigade. A BEST spokesperson said there was a small problem with bus no. 302 that was on its way to Sion but there was no fire. The smoke was detected from the bus brake liner.

The bus is a part of 10 state-of-the-art 9-Meter (eBuzz K7) electric buses that have been procured from Olectra-BYD as part of its 40 AC and non-AC bus orders on Gross Cost Contract basis. A statement from Olectra Greentech Limited, the manufacturers of the bus, stated, "The incident was the case of a slight heating up of the brake shoe due to air leakage in the right-side booster, a normal phenomenon in any vehicle, which resulted in overheating. All the buses are equipped with foam-based fire extinguishers to handle such exigencies. Though we are probing the incident, we reassure that the Olectra-BYD electric buses are the safest."

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