Surprise at Maharashtra State Road Transportation Corporation

How many of us would expect a courteous and well mannered, soft spoken conductor in an ST bus??? Not many correct? For that matter how many of us would expect a conductor in any of the state transport buses to ask you to take care of your tickets and belongings while getting down etc…

Here is an incident that occurred last week which changed my perception about the conductors in the MSRTC buses.

MSRTC (Maharashtra State Road Transportation Corporation) buses or better known as ST buses in Maharashtra, India is the state owned transportation body. The moment we hear the word ST bus. The image of a rickety, dirty red bus comes to our minds. The ST buses are generally in a very bad shape, thanks to poor maintenance and rash driving by the drivers.

MSRTC Logo

BEFORE I BEGIN, SOME FACTS ABOUT MSRTC

• 1948 Bombay State Government, started its own state sponsored road transport service called State Transport of Bombay.The first blue and silver-topped bus took off from Pune to Ahmednagar in 1948.
• 1950 the central government under the initiative of Morarji Desai the then home minister passed the Road Transport Corporation Act. This act delegated powers to states to form their individual road transport corporations, the central government would contribute up to a third of the establishment of such services. The Bombay State Road Transport Corporation (BSRTC) was formed following this, later on whose name was changed to Maharastra State Road Transport Corporation after the re-organization of the states.
• MSRTC is one of the largest fleet owners in India, operating a fleet of approximately 16,000 busees.
• The buses are mainly made by two companies, TATA and Ashok Leyland. The Asiads in MSRTC mostly are made by TATA Motors, Whereas the red st’s are a mix of Tata and Ashok Leyland. 
• They have three central workshops where the bodies of their buses are built,approximately 2000 in numbers per year.
• The organisation has 9 Tyre Retreading Plant and 32 Divisional Workshops. 
• The largest bus fleet in the world after London metro bus service.

Courtesy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maharashtra_State_Road_Transport_Corporation

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Here is what happened

I have always had not so pleasant experiences with the ST buses. I generally travel from Uran (a remote suburb of Navi Mumbai) to Dadar (a place in Mumbai) in the ST buses as they are the alternative to the NMMT buses that ply from Navi Mumbai to Uran. The buses are generally very dirty, rickety and the conductors and drivers are not the best people to deal with, but I get along without much issues.

Last week we  had to travel from Pune to Mumbai. I was waiting for a bus at Nigdi in the outskirts of Pune. A red ST bus MH 12 6302 came along, it was in pretty good shape, we decided to wait no further and got into it.

Strangely the conductor wasn’t shouting at people to get in to the bus quickly. Hmmm! I didn’t observe it then but now while writing this thing just came into my mind. We saw a vacant seat towards the back of the bus and made ourselves comfortable there.

Soon the conductor came and issued the tickets. We asked for a ticket for Vashi in Navi Mumbai and one for Dadar in Mumbai. The conductor was nice enough tell us which ticket is for which destination and asked us to take the correct tickets with us so that I don’t end up with the Vashi ticket after she gets down. (Vashi comes before Dadar on the way to Mumbai from Pune). How customer service centric was he! 

He helped two elderly ladies who were travelling to Mumbai for the first time to find their destination at Chembur. 

When a family of four with lots of luggage was getting down, he asked the Dad to get down first and asked the elder kid to pass on the luggage from the bus (so that the Dad can quickly  keep them at a distance from the bus), and once all luggage was down the kids could get down and finally the Mom could. 

I was surprised by the care he was taking of his customers!

When we crossed Suman Nagar I complimented him. He was very happy, he said “Its me job, I have to do it”. His name is Ashok Shivaji Pawar, his home town is Lonand in Satara. He works at the Phaltan depot in Satara and has been on the Mumbai Phaltan route via Pune for the last 37 years and has seen the bus fare from Phaltan to Mumbai rise from just under Rs 7 to Rs 174 today and will be retiring in about 2 years! His phone number is 9975 244 254.

He was one hell of a courteous gentleman. He also said that “This is my job and I have to ensure my customers reach their destination in safely and on time and also that they don’t forget anything in the bus”.

He has 3 children, all grown up. Two of them are constables in Maharashtra Police, and one is working with BSNL. He said he was going to stay with his sons in Thane. I said Goodbye to him at Dadar and thanked him for his service.

Next day I wrote an email to the MD of MSRTC and also called up their office to talk to them. The lady who attended the call said their MD checks the emails regularly and thanked me for writing to them and complimenting their staff. (The MD hasn’t replied the email yet!)

It was around 5:30PM that day when I recieved a call on my mobile, it was our Ashok Shivaji Pawar, he said he was on his way back to Phaltan and had crossed Lonavla. He wished me “Best of Luck” and I said “I’d love to meet him again”. He said “Me too!”

Signing Off!

Novin