Victoria 2.0 hits Mumbai roads
Ismat Tahseen | TNN | Aug 31, 2019, 01:00 IST
They’ve been part of innumerable books as well as served as backdrops in yesteryear movies, adding a colonial charm to Bombay of yore. We’re referring to the beautiful horse-drawn
Victoria carriages
that operated in the city for close to a century. Four years ago, a ban citing animal cruelty forced them to withdraw and fade away into oblivion. Not for long. The carriages are back and how! Animal lovers can take heart from the fact that the revived carriages operate without horses. The new avatar as battery-operated, e-buggies are set to hit Mumbai streets on September 1. BT, however, could not wait and hopped on one before its official launch and got a first-hand experience of what it felt like to ride Victoria 2.0...
‘The plan is to roll out 40 e-buggies in Phase 1 in the city’
Imagine taking a leisurely ride on a comfortable buggy past the city’s iconic structures. As the colonial charm of South Mumbai unfolds before your eyes during the ride, an audio guide narrates the history of each heritage wonder. You can get off, stroll around and hop onto another e-buggy. Says
Ketan Kadam
, who along with actor
Dino Morea
, is responsible for the revival of the carriages, “The Victorias were once such a beautiful part of the city. We wanted to bring that charm back albeit in an
e-buggy
style.”
Ketan Kadam says, “You can just stop them anywhere and hop on and off at will. Unlike horse-drawn carriages, these electric buggies can navigate heavy traffic routes easily. The plan is to roll out 40 of them in Phase 1.”
While the e-buggies look like their predecessors, the feel is something else — they are a 2.0 version of the former. He explains, “The rides are equipped with a GPS-triggered audio tour, so when the carriage stops at a certain place, like Gateway of India, you choose your language and it will auto-narrate the history of the Gateway. There are also bluetooth speakers for riders to enjoy their kind of music.”
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