Indias oldest bus fleet trains its newest drivers hardest. But the accidents involve veterans

Before anyone is allowed behind the wheel of a BEST bus, they are first shown death.Inside a modest classroom at the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) training centre in Dindoshi, CCTV footage of recent road accidents flickers across a projector screen. An instructor pauses after every clip, rewinds the video and asks a room full of trainees the same question. What could the driver have done differently?Around 30 trainees sit quietly, watching. Some are first-time recruits hoping to drive Mumbai’s red buses. Others have returned after years away and are doing the course again.“Whenever an accident occurs, two families are ruined, theirs and yours. Financial compensation alone cannot placate a grieving family,” Ninad Shirodkar, Deputy Depot Manager of Training at the Dindoshi centre, tells the class. The BEST training centre at Dindoshi, Malad East, which has trained the undertaking’s drivers and conductors since 1997. (Express photo by Sankhadeep Banerjee)Outside the classroom, the scrutiny over BEST has only intensified. Three days ago, the day the undertaking celebrated its 79th Foundation Day, Jayshri Bhanaji Parmar, a 56-year-old BMC sanitation worker, was crossing near Mulund check naka when a wet-lease bus on route 512 moved off at a green signal. The front right corner of the bus hit her and the right tyre ran over her. The driver and conductor, both employed by a wet-lease contractor, were taken to Mulund police station. Parmar’s death came a day after BEST announced its latest safety drive, a three-day programme for the 5,200 contract drivers operating its 2,553 wet-lease buses.Story continues below this ad BEST recorded 24 deaths in accidents involving its buses in 2024-25, and 24 again in 2025-26. Seven people have died since January. What stands out is not the annual total, which has held steady, but the clustering. More than 19 major and minor accidents in the past three months alone, four of them fatal. Inside the classroom at Dindoshi, where recent crashes have become case studies. (Express photo by Sankhadeep Banerjee)Courts have questioned whether the training is adequate. In a 2026 bail order involving a driver in the Kurla crash, the Bombay High Court criticised the lack of on-road training. In July, while framing culpable homicide charges in the 2025 Bhandup crash case, it returned to the same concern. The Indian Express spent two days at the Dindoshi centre in Malad East to see what it now takes to earn the right to drive one of Mumbai’s buses. What emerges is a system running at two speeds. A new recruit gets 28 days before he carries a passenger. Most of the recent fatal crashes have involved drivers who have been on the road for years, and what BEST has added for them, after last month’s death in Mankhurd, is a three-day refresher in half-hour slots before the shift. An instructor watches a driver during a refresher session at a BEST depot. (Express photo by Sankhadeep Banerjee)What 28 days look likeStory continues below this ad Beside the Dindoshi depot, the centre has trained BEST drivers and conductors since 1997. The broad structure of the programme remains unchanged. What has changed is that recent accidents now shape much of what is taught inside its classrooms. The centre trained 633 wet-lease drivers in the first half of 2026, after training 5,840 in 2025. “After any major accident, I visit the site, examine traffic CCTV footage, understand the cause and present my observations to the trainees,” says Shirodkar, who has spent three decades in BEST’s traffic department. “Walking them through the sequence of events helps them understand what could have prevented the accident.” For six days, new recruits are taught everything from BEST’s history and traffic regulations to fire safety, fuel conservation and the mechanics of a bus. One morning, instructor Madhav Nandurkar stands before a whiteboard explaining how an engine works. “Just as different departments in a hospital care for