Yatin S Angare hires the non-AC bus from Borivili to Churchgate, on a rare route that included Bandra Worli Sea Link, Marine Drive
Yatin S Agare with the double-decker bus on Sunday. He says he is still waiting for information on how to buy the bus. Pic/Rajendra B Aklekar
Dahisar bus hobbyist Yatin S Angare, who wants to buy an old Mumbai double-decker bus, hired one of the last remaining buses for a ride all the way to Churchgate from Borivili, on a rare route that included the Bandra Worli sea link and Marine Drive. He burst into tears during an emotional ride with his family on Sunday.
“Can you believe that we are the last generation to witness these iconic non-AC double decker buses and in a month or so they will cease to exist. No one has told me yet what is the official procedure to go about buying it,” he told mid-day. Most of the double decker buses and many other old category BEST vehicles have already lined up for scrap at BEST’s Anik depot, indicating the end of an era.
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Introduced in Bombay in 1937—on the lines of the red double decker buses in London--to cope with the growing number of passengers, the sheer size and look of the buses made them instantly popular.
Double deckers had been quietly vanishing from the city’s scape with the fleet going down from 227 in April 2006 to 171 in April 2008 and 134 in July 2009, 122 in 2018, 60 remaining by December 2020 and now just 10 remain as of July 30 2023.
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