India's Electric Bus Push Is Changing the Work Behind the Wheel

When an electric bus crashed in Mumbai's Kurla neighbourhood in December 2024, killing nine people and injuring dozens, it raised questions about the safety of deploying these automatic, powerful vehicles in India’s most populous city. The questions have grown louder as Mumbai’s public transport body, Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking, plans to expand its current electric bus fleet from over 1,300 today to 8,000 by 2027. 

“If someone shifts from CNG to [driving] electric [buses] without proper training, they will not understand how they behave,” said Rajaram Yadav, a public transport driver who has spent years behind the wheel.

Yadav currently drives a CNG bus for Mumbai's public fleet and has watched the shift to electric buses closely. Unlike conventional buses, electric buses do not require constant clutch and gear operation and deliver higher torque.

“Driving these buses demands a calmer approach,” Yadav said. “Everything has to be learnt, from braking and controls to how the vehicle responds.”

India is rapidly expanding its electric bus fleet as its cities grapple with rising transport demand, air pollution and the need to cut climate-heating emissions from public transport. Government schemes aimed at accelerating electric vehicle adoption have supported the deployment of almost 6,000 electric buses on the country's roads since 2015. 

Electric buses already account for nearly half of BEST’s 2,800-strong fleet. It has approved the procurement of 1,500 more in August 2026.

As the electric fleet expands in Mumbai, it is doing so against a wider safety challenge in BEST's bus operations. According to data reported by The Indian Express, 24 deaths were recorded each in the past two years in accidents involving electric buses, while seven people have died since January this year. 

The Kurla case, however, raised specific questions about the preparedness of drivers operating electric buses. Police cited concerns over the driver's training, while the Bombay High Court later questioned the adequacy of his practical training before he was assigned an electric bus. BEST subsequently revised its dedicated EV training at its Dindoshi centre in east Malad.

The transition is also changing the employment structure around Mumbai's buses. Much of the expansion is happening through wet-lease contracts, under which private operators provide and maintain buses and employ the drivers while BEST pays them based on kilometres operated. 

Under this model, drivers work for private contractors rather than BEST itself, with drivers and union representatives saying contract workers generally receive lower wages and fewer benefits than permanent employees.

The experience of drivers like Yadav raises a larger question for Mumbai's transition: are training, working conditions and oversight keeping pace with the technology being brought onto its narrow, congested roads?

The transition behind the wheel

The Indian government has promoted electric vehicles, including buses, since 2015, when it launched the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (FAME) scheme with a budget of nearly ₹900 crore. Its second phase, which ran from 2019 to 2024, had a much larger budget of over ₹10,000 crore.

While FAME also supported private electric vehicles, its successor, PM E-DRIVE, places greater emphasis on public mobility. The scheme, which runs from 2024 to 2028 with a budget of almost ₹12,000 crore, aims to bring more than 14,000 electric buses across Indian cities.

For Amit Bhatt, India managing director at the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), that scale makes preparation as important as procurement.

“It is not just about buying buses,” Bhatt said. “Public transport already struggles with low fare recovery, fragmented planning and chronic underinvestment. Electric buses add another layer of complexity, including the need for charging infrastructure, higher upfront vehicle costs, delayed payments to operators and a completely different driving experience.”

Unlike conventional CNG and diesel buses, electric buses deliver instant torque, accelerate rapidly and rely on regenerative braking instead of the familiar clutch-and-gear system. Drivers trained over decades on manual vehicles must adapt to an entirely different machine. 

Bhatt said drivers need adequate training to understand how electric buses perform and how to manoeuvre them safely.

Drivers making the shift from one type of bus to another describe the contrast in practical terms.

Yadav says the difference is not difficult to understand once drivers are given enough time to learn the vehicle. But he believes training needs to go beyond a basic introduction to controls.

He does not believe electric buses are inherently dangerous. In his view, many accidents stem from human error. "In one case, the driver pressed the accelerator instead of the brake," he said. "That mistake became a tragedy."

Dinesh Patil, another contract driver in Mumbai, received 21 days of induction training before joining BEST operations. He believes electric buses require more days of practical training, particularly for drivers coming from smaller vehicles.

“Many new drivers come from driving auto-rickshaws or smaller vehicles. Electric buses respond differently. If you don't understand them properly, mistakes happen,” Patil said.

Patil also sees an advantage in the new vehicles. The absence of clutch and gear shifting makes electric buses physically easier to drive and can reduce fatigue over long shifts. But their automatic systems can also create a false sense of simplicity. “They look easier,” he said. “But because they are automatic and respond quickly, drivers need more training.”

Training, however, is only one part of the challenge. For many drivers, the shift to electric buses is coloured by contractual employment under private operators rather than BEST itself.

Yadav works eight-hour shifts and often works overtime. With monthly salaries ranging between ₹ 20,000-25,000 a month, many contract drivers struggle to support their families in one of India's most expensive cities.

“When one person has to feed four people, you end up taking another job after your shift,” he said.

Patil echoed Yadav’s sentiment, "Work is hard, but the salary is very low," he said. His biggest demand remains permanent employment and better wages for contract drivers.

Long hours, low salaries and the need to take up secondary jobs leave many contract drivers mentally exhausted before they even begin their shift. For drivers, these concerns sit alongside the demands of learning to operate a different type of vehicle.

A changing workforce

"The salaries and facilities available to contract drivers [under the wet-lease model] are not the same as permanent employees," said Sunil Gannacharya, former leader of the BEST Employees' Union. 

At its peak around 2010-11, he said, BEST operated nearly 5,000 buses carrying around 30 lakh passengers every day. Today, the operational fleet has shrunk while demand continues to outpace supply.

The wet lease model is gaining prominence. According to a report, BEST only owns 249 buses in its 2,800-strong fleet. The rest are operated under wet lease. These private contractors were also responsible for driver training, until early this month, when BEST launched a dedicated training programme for over 5,000 contract drivers.

The difference in compensation and benefits to drivers affects morale, fatigue and eventually safety, believes Gannacharya.

Mumbai's operating conditions add another challenge, he said. The city's roads are narrow, infrastructure projects constantly alter traffic patterns, and the new 12-metre electric buses are longer than the 9-metre buses BEST previously operated.

Frequent stops every kilometre, automatic doors opening and closing hundreds of times a day and dense mixed traffic create operating conditions very different from those for which many electric buses were originally designed.

Gannacharya believes every driver should receive at least one month of dedicated training before entering service. "You cannot simply hand over a new technology and expect people to learn on the road," he said.

BEST Chairperson Trushna Vishwasrao acknowledges that expanding the electric bus fleet must be matched by stronger safety measures. After the recent accidents, the public body made four weeks of training compulsory for wet-lease electric bus drivers hired under the wet-lease model. 

“The responsibility for driver training must be built directly into the contracts with wet-lease operators,” she said, adding that directions have been given to ensure that private operators provide structured training to their drivers before they are deployed on Mumbai's roads. 

Permanent BEST drivers receive structured training at its Dindoshi training centre. There, BEST uses dedicated electric buses fitted with dual controls for practical instruction, allowing trainers to intervene if necessary during on-road sessions, said  Ramesh Madavi, Assistant General Manager at BEST. He added that refresher courses for drivers are also being updated based on operational experience.

However, for most bus drivers on the city's roads, private contractors are responsible for providing adequate training.

A just transition

Mumbai's experience raises questions for other Indian cities moving towards electric public transport, including the changes needed across the system, from workforce development and infrastructure to financing, governance and oversight of private operators.

ICCT’s Bhatt believes electrification remains the right direction, but says investment in the systems around the vehicles needs to keep pace.

"Many countries have dedicated schools for bus drivers," he said. "In India, drivers often learn while working. That approach has to change." Investment in training, better maintenance systems, stable financing and improved driver welfare are just as important as purchasing new buses, according to him.

For drivers like Yadav and Patil, the transition offers genuine advantages. Electric buses are quieter, smoother and less physically demanding than older vehicles. They believe those benefits will be easier to realise if drivers are given the time, training and financial security needed to adapt without being pushed to work excessive hours.

As Mumbai adds thousands more electric buses, the experience of the people behind the wheel will be an important test of how well the city is managing the transition.

This story is supported by the Just Transition Research Center (JTRC) Fellowship offered jointly by IIT Kanpur and Climate Trends, and supported by the Earth Journalism Network.