Kochi: Special Motor Vehicle Department squad to check private buses

Kochi: It’s a regular sight in private buses to seat women passengers over the battery box in the driver’s cabin, play music while conducting the service or give tickets without register numbers. Finally the law is catching up with them with the Motor Vehicle Department forming a special squad to check such practices by the private bus crews.

“The four-member squad was formed on July 1 specifically to monitor private buses following the recent incident in which a commuter was beaten up by the bus crew for questioning over-speeding. They will see that the buses follow all the rules including setting up of a drivers’cabin and restriction on passengers entering it,” Deputy Transport Commissioner K G Samuel said.

The squad will monitor buses plying in the Ernakulam, Mattancherry, Tripunithura and Aluva regions for over-speeding, non-provision of reserved seats for women and handicapped, failure to give tickets with register numbers, for crew not wearing badges and for buses not taking school students among others. The squad has booked a total of 350 buses from July1 to July 7 and the cases were handed over to the RTO for action.

“So far we were lenient on factors like driver's cabin and playing of music during trips. Now it will not be allowed. Similarly all buses will have to compulsorily stick time-sheets inside buses,” the officer said.

The checking will be done during non-peak hours and the buses cutting trips on a regular basis will also be booked. However leniency will be shown if a bus gets caught in a traffic jam inside the city.