? The electric bus revolution has quietly arrived in Mumbai — and honestly? Most of it is brilliant.
If you’ve ridden one of BEST’s new Olectra electric buses in the last year or so, you already know the feeling. It’s quiet. Uncannily quiet. No diesel rattle, no engine roar at traffic signals — just a smooth, almost eerie glide through Mumbai’s legendarily chaotic roads. The AC kicks in, the USB port is right there, and for a moment you think: okay, this is progress. ?
India’s public transport is going through a genuine transformation. And Mumbai — noisy, crowded, brilliant Mumbai — is smack at the centre of it.
Meet the Bus Behind the Buzz: Olectra Greentech
Olectra Greentech, in partnership with Chinese EV giant BYD, is the name behind India’s most widely deployed electric bus fleet. Their flagship model — the K9 (also known as the eBuzz K9) — is a 12-metre, fully air-conditioned electric bus deployed across 35+ Indian cities, clocking millions of kilometres in real-world service.
Mumbai’s BEST (Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport) operates hundreds of these units as part of its ambitious electrification push under FAME II. In Goa, the Kadamba Transport Corporation (KTCL) runs both Olectra K9 and PMI Electro Mobility electric buses on coastal and inter-city routes. The specs on paper are genuinely impressive:
- ? Range: 250–350 km per charge (newer Blade Battery models push past 500 km)
- ? Battery: BYD Blade LiFePO4 — nail-penetration tested, over 5,000 charge cycles
- ?? AC: Roof-mounted air conditioning, standard across all units
- ? Amenities: USB charging at every seat, CCTV, panic buttons, GPS, cantilever seating
- ? Safety: Disc brakes with ABS, air suspension, regenerative braking, Electronic Hydraulic Power Steering
- ? Accessibility: Low-floor entry (~400mm), kneeling mechanism at stops
The quiet cabin, the smooth acceleration, the absence of fumes — these aren’t small upgrades. They’re genuinely life-improving for anyone who commutes daily in a city like Mumbai.
So What Did Commuters Notice? ?
Here’s where things get interesting.
Over recent weeks, NewsPatron received feedback from several commuters across Mumbai — office-goers, daily wage workers, weekend travellers, students — people who ride BEST electric buses regularly across different routes and depots. They weren’t writing in with complaints, exactly. More like a curious observation, raised independently, from different communities.
The pattern that emerged: commuters who had also travelled on Kadamba’s PMI buses in Goa noticed that those buses had a dedicated air blower at the window seat — the kind you can direct towards your face, like on a train. Back in Mumbai, on the BEST-operated versions of what appears to be a similar base vehicle, that blower seems to be absent. Only a shared central vent covering the aisle.
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Advertisement“The AC is there, yes. But if you’re sitting at a window seat, you’re not really getting the air directly. The vents feel like they’re for the aisle. In Goa the bus felt different — more airflow on your face.”
“I travelled in a Kadamba bus in Goa and there were individual blowers near the window seats — like you get on a train or an airplane. I did not find that in the BEST buses I use in Mumbai. Maybe I missed it?”
“Window seat mein baithe toh bhi paseena aata hai. Aisle mein thanda lagta hai. Aise kyun?” (Even in a window seat I’m sweating. The aisle feels cooler. Why?)
A Voice from the Community — In Marathi
One particularly detailed piece of feedback we received — originally shared in Marathi — captures the frustration that many commuters couldn’t quite put into words. Here it is, paraphrased for context:
“In Goa, Kadamba Transport’s PMI buses have a separate air blower at the window seat — a design that clearly takes passenger comfort into account. But when the same PMI buses run under BEST in Mumbai, that blower is gone. Just one shared vent for the aisle. Why?
Whether it’s Foton Motor’s original body design being changed later, or ‘Indian modifications’ being applied after the fact — passenger comfort always seems to be the first thing that gets cut. And it’s not only the PMI buses. The same pattern is visible in new Olectra Greentech buses, which are built on BYD’s original design. With every update, features quietly shrink and cost-cutting quietly grows.
Public transport is not just about putting a bus on the road. Passenger experience, safety, and comfort are equally important. Otherwise, what we’re calling development is nothing but an empty frame.”
That last line deserves to sit with us for a moment. An empty frame. A bus that checks every government tender box, meets every spec on paper, gets photographed at the launch event — but quietly strips the features that made the original design worth riding.
Individual Blowers vs. Central Roof AC — What’s the Difference?
For those who want the technical context:
Premium bus configurations — particularly on tourism or inter-city routes — include individual overhead air diffusers or directional blowers above each seat, similar to what you’d find in an aircraft or a Volvo coach. These are in addition to the central roof-mounted AC duct and allow individual passengers to control airflow towards their own seat. In a full bus in July, that distinction is not trivial.
Standard urban configurations — optimised for passenger density and cost efficiency — rely on central roof AC ducts alone, distributing air in a general pattern. In a dense, standing-room-only Mumbai bus, the distribution is not always uniform. Window seats, particularly those further from the AC duct centre, can feel the difference on a 35°C afternoon.
BEST (Mumbai) vs. Kadamba (Goa) — Same Bus, Different Experience?
Both operators deploy variants of these electric buses. Both have AC. Both run under government schemes. But tender specifications — the feature list an operator requests at purchase — can differ significantly between operators.
Kadamba serves tourism-heavy, coastal, and inter-city routes where passenger comfort and longer journey experience matter. BEST operates in Mumbai’s ultra-dense, high-volume urban grid where the priority is fitting maximum passengers and keeping per-kilometre costs low enough for affordable fares.
Could this explain a difference in cabin spec? Possibly. Legitimately. Without any wrongdoing. Individual blowers are likely an optional add-on. Operators who order high volumes under competitive tenders sometimes de-select comfort extras — not out of malice, but because every rupee in a public transport tender has to be justified. The base model is standard. The extras are exactly that: extras. And in Mumbai, extras are often the first thing to go.
That doesn’t make it right. It just makes it explainable. And explainable things deserve an explanation — clearly, on the record.
We Want to Be Fair — So We Asked
? What we know: Olectra’s standard spec includes roof-mounted AC across all models.
? What we know: Individual directional blowers are available on some configurations — likely optional.
? What we know: Multiple independent commuters have flagged a perceived difference in airflow comfort between BEST Mumbai units and Kadamba Goa deployments.
? What we don’t know: Whether this is a deliberate BEST spec choice, a cost optimisation, a batch-specific variation, or simply something that doesn’t exist at all and commuters are misremembering a different journey.
We have sent Olectra Greentech an email seeking formal clarification on this specific point. We have also reached out to BEST. This article will be updated with their response the moment we receive it. Our inbox is open — and so are our comments.
Now — We’re Asking You ?
You ride these buses. You know better than any spec sheet what it feels like to sit in a window seat during peak hour in July.
- ?? Do you have individual directional air blowers above your window seat in BEST’s Olectra buses?
- ? Or is it just the central overhead AC duct — no individual blower?
- ?? Which route or depot are you travelling from? (Differences may exist between older and newer bus batches)
- ?? Have you also travelled in Kadamba buses in Goa and noticed a difference?
Drop your experience in the comments. Take a photo if you can — just a quick shot of the overhead area above your window seat. Your commute data is more useful right now than any press release. ?
The Bigger Picture ?
India is spending tens of thousands of crores electrifying its public transport fleet. The buses are here. The routes are expanding. The zero-emission future is genuinely arriving — and that is worth celebrating.
But public transport isn’t just about deployment numbers and emission certificates. It’s about whether a working woman sitting in a window seat on the 07:45 from Kurla to Bandra arrives comfortable enough to start her day. It’s about whether an elderly man on his way to a hospital appointment isn’t sweating through his shirt because the airflow skipped his row.
These are not luxuries. These are the real metrics of a good public transport system. And if a small directional blower — the kind that costs a few hundred rupees per seat at procurement scale — is the difference between a comfortable ride and an uncomfortable one for lakhs of daily commuters, then it deserves to be part of the conversation.
We’re not here to accuse anyone. We’re here to ask. And right now, the question is open. ??
? NewsPatron has emailed Olectra Greentech and BEST seeking formal response. This article will be updated with their reply. If you’re from either organisation — our inbox is always open.
? Follow NewsPatron and subscribe on YouTube — we’ll update this thread the moment we hear back. Share this with every Mumbaikar you know who rides the bus. The more data we have from real commuters, the clearer the picture gets. ??
