Eating is an agricultural act - Wendell Berry

Saturday, November 07, 2009

king long

warped minds will warp their minds over this title.
king long is a famous name in mumbai as they have invaded the city over the last 2 years like no one.

ok, ok...
the fleet of the new AC buses used by BEST (as part of the Bus Rapid Transit System-BRTS) and of late by MSRTC (mumbai pune route) is king long buses. (on the mumbai-pune AC bus route aka Volvo, the king longs are improving their market share)


pic courtesy: Sharmeen Sahibole

these chinese-make buses are an attempt to woo the car-based travellers from the suburbs to the town-side. and from the initial looks of it, they are making an attempt.
currently BEST operates 10 routes.
we have taken 2 of them.
they are obviously very comfortable and all that. and tickets are in the range of Rs 15 (min) - 100 (max). pretty reasonable.

but if you are in a taxi/auto/2-wheeler and are behind the king longs, the heat/noise from the AC and engine is quite unbearable.

take it the next time you are in the city.

2 comments:

Aniket said...

I had taken the 461 bus from Mulund to Borivali during evening traffic ... and was pleasantly shocked at the comfort of travel. The usually dreaded route was a smooth ride :))

csm said...

am - they are auto transmission buses and not manual gears. that was good to see.
but today's mumbai mirror carries an article saying that complaints from commuters are increasing over frequent breakdowns.