Mumbai, Jul 17 (PTI) More than 30 passengers had a narrow escape after a BEST bus caught fire in Marol in Mumbai’s Andheri area on Monday, an official said.
The bus, which has been hired by the civic-run transport undertaking from a private contractor, was operating on route number 186 when the blaze broke out at 10:45am under Reliance Flyover there, the official said.
“The bus, which had left Agarkar Chowk in Andheri East for Vihar Lake in Powai, had at least 35 passengers, including some students, at the time of the incident. The fire may have been caused by a short circuit. There was sparking inside the dashboard,” driver Mohammad Hussain Shaikh told PTI.
Shaikh (56) said he asked passengers to alight immediately and used the two fire extinguishers in the vehicle to douse the fire but in vain.
“A policeman who arrived at the spot also used an extinguisher from another vehicle but failed to douse the fire. We got through to the fire brigade after some time as their number was initially busy,” he said.
The fire brigade arrived in 15 minutes with two fire tenders and doused the blaze but by then the bus had been gutted, he said.
Shaikh said he had been driving at the airport for the last 11 years and for a private contractor hired by BEST for one-and-half years and the training during these stints helped him use the fire extinguisher.
Incidentally, this is the fifth incident of BEST buses catching fire since the beginning of 2023 and the second since June 16.
On June 16, a bus caught fire in the undertaking’s Dharavi depot.
In February, BEST had taken 400 wet leased buses off the roads after three fire incidents in quick succession. PTI KK BNM BNM
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