The Classic British Buses website - transport in India in 2018 - page 1

Transport in India in 2018: page 1 - buses (by Dick Gilbert)

Last updated 13 March 2022

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In November and December 2018 I made my third trip to the wonderful country of India and visited the southern states of Tamil Nadu (TN registrations), Kerala (KL) and Karnataka (KA). These three pages are a personal view of what I saw in the way of transport, divided into the following sections:

1. Buses 2018 - part one (this page)

2. Buses 2018 - part two

3. Trucks, cars, railways, aviation etc. 2018

See also my first trip to India in 2006

Delhi gallery from 2021 and 2022

In the four years since my last visit I noticed many changes. New names included the joint enterprises of Maruti Suzuki, and Swaraj Mazda trucks and light commercial vehicles. Force vans had appeared along with SML light trucks and Bharatbenz trucks. Ashok, renowned for buses and heavy-duty transport, were now making tiny vans, while Maruti (normally associated with tractors and little wagons) were now building big trucks. It was all new to me, as was the little Mahindra Maxi Cab bus, a couple of which are shown below.

Meanwhile the ubiquitous Ambassador saloon cars were becoming rarer, and examples in the cities could often be very tatty. Our coach for the tour was an Ashok Leyland with Prakash bodywork. So let's have a look at the buses first, and we start in Chennai (formerly Madras), capital of Tamil Nadu state.

STATE OF TAMIL NADU************************

Here is a Mahindra FJ-460 Maxi Cab (TN05 H3524) running through central Chennai. The design is based on the U. S. Jeep Forward Control made by Willys in the 1950s and 1960s, and later under licence by Mahindra. The pressed steel radiator grille is the same design as the Willy's original. In the 1980s Mahindra started making the FJ-460 with 4-wheel drive and the FJ-470 2-wheel drive. I think they are meant to seat up to 15, but often accommodate about 25 (particularly when used as a school bus) which must be quite cosy.

Here's another Mahindra Maxi Cab out in the countryside near Thekkady in Kerala state. Cute, aren't they?

Returning to Chennai, the standard brown city buses were run by the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC). As well as MTC you can sometimes see CMBT written on the front. That's not an operator, it's a destination - Chennai Mofussil bus terminus. This is an MTC Ashok Leyland with fleet number PMI 1151 (registration TN01 N5433). All fleet numbers had 3-letter prefixes and I noticed the following:

Tata; ALI, AYI, MNI

Ashok Leyland; CDI, CDJ, CRI, KNI, PMI, PRI, PRJ, SPI, TAI, TDI, TRI, VPI, VPJ

Unknown; ADI, ADJ, ALJ, AMI, ANI, AYJ, BBJ, BNI, CWI, IYI, KAI, KAJ, KNJ, KUI, KUJ, MNJ, PAI, PMJ, TAJ, TDJ, TNI, TNJ, TRJ, TWI, TWJ

I can't be sure what the prefixes mean - maybe chassis type, or body type, or route? Anybody know? They don't seem to follow the same pattern as in Kerala (see further down this page). By the way the headquarters of Ashok Leyland is in Chennai and they have classic examples of single and double-deck buses in the foyer.

Although in the same livery as the MTC bus above, this Ashok Leyland seen in Madurai is operated by the state, not the city. Registered TN58 N0847 it is run by Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) who appear not to use fleet numbers, as far as I could tell.

Indians do love a bit of decoration! Here are three privately-operated Mercedes coaches in a Madurai car park trying to keep cool with their bonnets open.

Also in the Madurai park is this Veera coach - I'd not seen one before. Veera Vahana Udyog Pvt Ltd, based in Bangalore, was founded in 2003 and now have quite a range of products. This model may be the Samrat V7 high deck sleeper. Note the dog trying to keep cool, like the rest of us...

Also in the same bus park was this little coach operated by Pandia's King of Madurai. With registration TN23 Q2782 the badge on the grille says it's an Audi. Can that be correct? Yes it is! Audi India Pvt manufactures buses in India. By the way, the Pandyas were one of the three great ancient dynasties of the city of Madurai. On the right are a couple of Force vans. Force Motors was formerly known as Bajaj Tempo Motors and is now India's largest van manufacturer, based in Pune.

As you might expect, all the school buses in India are yellow. This one in Madurai is an Eicher 11.10 with registration TN69 V9910. The engine is a 3.2 litre 4-cylinder diesel.

Here in Madurai is another Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation Ashok Leyland bus in the standard brown livery. Every TNSTC bus I saw in this livery was an Ashok Leyland.

This bus, also in Madurai and also operated by the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) wears a green livery and has a roof rack, which the brown ones do not. That leads me to think that the green ones are for longer distance routes. Again there is no fleet number on this bus (probably an Ashok Leyland), but the registration is TN57 N1693. However some green TNSTC buses DID have fleet numbers, and I noticed the prefixes KPM and VPM.

Now we are in Theni, still in Tamil Nadu but close to the state border into Kerala. Green long-range buses (with roof racks) from the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) are still passing by on their way to neighbouring states. This Ashok Leyland is registered TN57 N1959.

Also in Theni was this Tamil Nadu (TNSTC) brown Ashok Leyland local bus (without a roof rack) TN58 N1258, but it was one of the last we would see, as we exited the state.

Around the Theni area were a large number of bright green little buses like this Tata, registered TN60 B?922. These buses had belonged to local firm Rani Mankammal Transport Corporation (RMTC) but the company was later taken over by TNSTC. I assume that GKT is a company running the service on contract. This bus is on route 11.

Still in Tamil Nadu, here's another small green Theni bus, TN60 B5252 on local route 18. I don't recognise the badge on the radiator grille - perhaps someone can tell me what it is.

STATE OF KERALA************************

This picture shows the Ashok Leyland Lynx Smart 4900 tour buses used in Periyar tiger reserve near Thekkady in Kerala state (hence the KL registrations). They have 3.9 litre 4-cylinder diesel engines. As you can see, there were no tigers about - just cows.

Further into Kerala, near Alleppey, was this coach operated by Arshna Travels. I don't know what it is. Does anybody know? On the opened bonnet flap it says Gift of Allah.

This Ashok Leyland with a roof rack is on a Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) Venad (limited stop ordinary service) in their livery of off-white with blue stripes. Every bus I saw in this livery was an Ashok Leyland with a rear roof rack. It is seen near Alleppey and has the fleet number RAE 943 (registration KL15 8129). Other fleet prefixes noted were RAC, RAE, RAK, RNC, RNE, RPC, RPK and RRM.

Explanation of the first two letters:

KSRTC allocate prefixes based on 1000 buses in a series. Initially each series was given a letter from the word TRANSPORT - i.e. the first 1000 buses in the 1960s had the prefix T, then R etc. Eventually the letters ran out, so they started using two letters, hence RA, RN, RP and so on.

Explanation of the third letter:

This shows the depot where the bodywork is maintained. A = Aluva, C = Central Workshop (Pappanamcode), E = Edappai, K = Kozhikode, M = Mavelikkara.

Another KSRTC bus in the same livery is Ashok Leyland RAC26 (KL15 7206) which, curiously, has no roof rack. It is seen running through the old British colonial hill station town of Udhagamandalam, always abbreviated to Ooty. The big business here is tea and the town also has a narrow gauge mountain railway, which is shown on page 3 of this series.

Running around the old spice port city of Cochin (or Kochi as it is now called) were lots of bright green buses with white stripes. They seemed to be operated on a franchise system for the KSRTC. This example KL07 CE8273 (of unknown manufacture) was typical. They had fleet numbers prefixed CP and I saw a large number ranging from CP6 to CP561 (see below). Most were built by Tata or Mercedes.

This is another green Cochin city bus - Tata CP561 (KL07 AR8172) operated for KSRTC by Godwin. Other fleet names included Kochi Weelz United (quite a large fleet who also provided blue buses for the Kochi Metro Transport Co-operative), Mathsons, Heaven, Mubarak and Sadheek.

Above is (probably) Ashok Leyland KL43 J9988 operated by Antonia, one of the larger members of the Kochi Metro Transport Co-operative (KMTC) in their dark blue colours. KMTC also ran buses in a light blue livery and some in green.

TO CONTINUE THIS STORY USE THE LINKS BELOW:

1. Buses 2018 - part one (this page)

2. Buses 2018 - part two

3. Trucks, cars, railways, aviation etc. 2018