Fire guts BEST bus on JVLR, conductor injured; no passenger inside

A 25-year-old bus conductor, Ajit Sarate, sustained minor burns in a fire that gutted a BEST bus at JVLR's Gandhi Nagar junction on Monday. There was no passenger on the bus. BEST spokesperson Sudas Sawant said the driver, Sanjay Suryavanshi (54), escaped unscathed. He said the driver noticed smoke from the non-AC CNG bus' engine around 1.30pm, parked it on the roadside and exited with the conductor. The cause of the fire is being investigated; initial findings suggested a "technical issue". The fire was put out in 40 minutes. Activists and former BEST panel members attributed recent such fires to inadequate maintenance of contractual buses. Following a series of fires last year, BEST management had removed 400 AC buses from its fleet and instructed the contractor to conduct a thorough inspection of all buses. —Somit Sen