Two red 'BEST' buses turn white!

In a bid to re-brand its buses and attract more passengers, civic-run BEST has changed the colour of its two buses from red to white, an official said today.
The Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking operates buses in the megapolis.
"So far, two buses were painted white with yellow strips and if this yields positive response, then we will go for the makeover of other buses in our fleet," the BEST official said.
Last year, the BEST had asked Sir J J Institute of Applied Arts to design a new look and logo for their buses.
"This is an exercise to re-brand and overhaul our services by introducing a new colour scheme. Though the red-coloured buses are quite common in other cities across the globe, we want to experiment by changing it," said Manoj Varade, deputy PRO of BEST.

He said the BEST first got the approval from the transport authorities concerned and have changed the colour based on a suggestion given by J J Institute.

The BEST, which has a fleet of around 3,800 buses, including 120 double-decker buses and 266 purple air-conditioned (AC) buses, has been losing its passengers due to several reasons.
Around five years back, the transport utility used to ferry around 45 lakh passengers on a daily basis, but now it carries only 30 lakh passengers a day. It incurred loss of Rs 858 crore in 2014-15, Rs 905 crore in 2015-16 and Rs 590 crore in 2016-17.

In Mumbai, BEST buses are the second largest mode of transport after suburban trains, which daily ferry over 75 lakh commuters.