Chasing the Mahabus!

DSCF8794a

Eversince I heard of MSRTC introducing their newer fleet of buses - "Mahabus", I was trying to spot atleast one on the road. I saw them many times on the road, but could never photograph them. Today, I had some work and had gone to Vashi. While returning, I purposefully entered the highway to check if any Mahabuses were around. There were none. Dejected by that, I entered Palm Beach marg and started driving back to Belapur. Just as my car started moving out of a traffic signal, I noticed a Mahabus behind! That bus got held at the signal! I took the car a bit ahead, and waited for that bus to re-appear once again! There she is...(in the pic above!).

DSCF8796a

MSRTC, as a part of re-structuring their "luxury" segment, decided to take air conditioned buses on lease. Such buses are run under the name - "Mahabus". The Mahabus fleet of buses are run by MSRTC staff, and the corporation pays a rent to the owner of the vehicle. The fleet consists of King Long KL6113 buses, Tata Globus, and Ashok Leyland's 12M bus with a Sutlej body. These buses, reportedly, have 45 seats, with Air-conditioning and TV. These buses are operated on the Dadar-Pune, Thane-Pune, Borivali-Panaji-Madgaon (NOT Confirmed!), Dadar-Nashik and Mumbai-Latur routes. The fare is at par with MSRTC's Volvo Services!

DSCF8762a

The bus in the image above is the King Long KL6113. The body of this bus is built by Chandigarh based JCBL. The bus has a rear-mount Cummins engine. The Air-conditioning unit is run by the main power plant itself (like the one in a Volvo). The bus actually looks much better than a Volvo, though I am not very sure about the features inside. To my knowledge, there are two such buses in the MSRTC Mahabus fleet. Will try to get more information very soon. I took that photo as my MSRTC Volvo bus was moving out of Pune Bus station and so I couldn't get an image of the front view of the bus!
Hoping to chase more Mahabus' in the near future, signing off for now!

Comments

Anonymous said…
That’s a nice one! Volvo has good quality. If it’s better than Volvo, then it might be a really good one. The Volvo motor mount are one of those tough parts of Volvo I’m amazed of. I hope you could get more pictures in the following posts.
Anonymous said…
hi folks,
what else would a transport company need- low purchase price, low fuel cost, better milage, almost same comfort for the public and good vehicle services....
Unknown said…
Why msrtc close down msrtc mahabus? When I was 15 years old they were famous in maharshtra.