Bengaluru: With frequent bus breakdowns and the recent incident of a tyre rolling out of a moving bus, BMTC is carrying out strict checks to prevent such accidents in future.
BMTC chairman Nagaraj Yadav said the department has begun checks at depots and bus stops. The observations will be reported to MD Ponnuraj and the staff will be instructed about future measures.
“Drivers, conductors, depot mangers and mechanical engineers have been assigned responsibility to ensure quality. If a bus has problems with battery, lights, gear, brake, tyre or lack of spare parts, it must not be allowed to operate, irrespective of the schedule,” he said.
During the inspection it was found that depot managers were forcing drivers to ply even those buses that had snags, compromising commuters' safety. Yadav has instructed the drivers to raise a written complaint against erring depot managers.
BMTC ferries 52 lakh passengers a day and 2,000 buses are old and not fit to run. Recently 700 buses were phased out and 1,300 have been identified for removal.
“I feel that the corporation must remove buses that have run more than 10 lakh km, and review the fleet every three years. New buses must also be added as replacement, though financial crunch is an obstacle,” Yadav added.
It would be lighter on the corporation's pocket, to improve maintenance of existing fleet by strengthening supply of spare parts, buying new gearboxes and ensuring that quality is not compromised, he said.
In case of a breakdown, the Depot Mechanical Engineer (DME) and Depot Manager (DM) will be held accountable and must give first hand information to the management on the cause of accident.
During inspection it was also found that buses were ferrying people with open doors, thereby endangering the standing passengers.
At many places the buses were stopping away from the designated bus stops and people had to run to board them. The mindset of commuters and drivers need to be altered to correct this, BMTC officials said.
