Bharat III

Its been quite a while since our B.E.S.T. undertaking introduced the new Ashok Leyland-made "Bharat III" buses into their fleet, but its only a few weeks back that I got an opportunity to travel in them. I observed the following things:

• The first thing that one sees (as one is boarding the bus) is the huge springs at the rear of the bus. Though the height of the seats above the rear wheels have been increased, the ride itself seems to be quite smooth. One can actually feel the bus riding over Mumbai potholes and other such obstacles quite nicely.
• The noise of the engine is reduced drastically (and the engine seems to purring rather than roaring). This might be due to some heavy-duty sound mufflers placed over the engine (near the driver's seat).
• The windows can be half-closed (as in the train coaches)...there is a simple "latch-and-hole" mechanism to keep the window either fully open or half-closed. But one needs to see how long these "fragile" latches would last.
• One of the most annoying things about the old buses seems to have been fixed. The horizontal rod (bar) used by standing commuters seemed to end much before the first seat. As a result, I used to sometimes be without support in the tossing and rolling bus until I travelled down the aisle a bit further to the driver's seat - this is a very dangerous situation to be in since one might actually be thrown off if the driver brakes suddenly. This rod has now been extended right to the place where the stairs for alighting start.
• One of the peculiarities of the bus seems to be the use of a "turbocharger". There are clear instructions to the driver (in Marathi, of course) to idle the engine for 3 minutes after start and before turning off the engine. The reason given is because "the turbo charger revolves at 100,000 rpm".
• Another one is the horn of the bus; the sound from the horn (unfortunately) resembles the horn of a small vehicle like a motorbike. As one can imagine, this would convey a false sense of feeling to vehicles on the road as the beast (devil - its red and it kills people) approaches them from behind.
• The split-mirrors are another source of complaint by the drivers themselves. The split mirrors, it seems, confuses them as mentioned in this article.
• A power-steering has also been added, but given the way the bus swerves sometimes, one gets a feeling that the drivers are yet to get used to it (the drivers are made to drive different types of vehicles on different days).