Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) in a committee meeting on Thursday afternoon had proposed to buy six electric buses from Chinese manufacturer BYD Auto Industry Co Ltd on an experimental basis. Each bus would cost '1.63 crore.
However, the BJP has opposed BEST's proposal to outsource its electric buses from China claiming that it goes against the party's Make in India initiatives.
The BJP’s opposition comes in the wake of BEST suffering a loss of '106 crore in the past two years due to 272 Kinglong air-conditioned buses manufactured in China. The saffron party heads the BEST committee.
Fiercely protesting the BEST proposal, BJP-nominated BEST committee member Akash Purohit, also the son of Colaba MLA Raj Purohit, questioned, “Why should we get China-made buses in Mumbai, when our experience with the Chinese products, especially the Kinglong buses have been bad We have opposed the use China products more than once.”
He also claimed that his party will speak to the general manager of BEST Jagdish Patil.
Speaking further, Mr Purohit said that the step is big and away from the concentrated effort made through the Made in India initiatives all over the country.
“Our honourable Prime Minister saab had urged that we benefit from our products and subsequently widen the scope of employment for our manufacturers. Hence, we should look at a longer perspective by going for more Indian, especially Maharashtra-made, buses rather than badly-manufactured Chinese products,” he said.
On why a Chinese company is being given the contract, BEST additional general manager Sanjay Bhagat said, “The BYD has done a lot of work on an international level. They have around 10 of their buses running in Nottingham, England, 35 in Amsterdam airport and 50 in the rail and infrastructure project in Malaysia. So, we have done our homework before taking this decision. Besides, we have to experiment, otherwise we won't be able to introduce anything new in BEST.”
