Transport Officials Inspect School Buses for Safety Norms in AP
The transport authorities served a seven-day notice to all the educational institutions to make their buses roadworthy under provisions of Motor Vehicle Act, 1988 and the Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989, during the summer vacation.
Vijayawada: At the start of the new academic year, the Andhra Pradesh government has started enforcement of road safety norms on buses plying for educational institutions from Tuesday to ensure safety to the students and staff members.
The transport authorities served a seven-day notice to all the educational institutions to make their buses roadworthy under provisions of Motor Vehicle Act, 1988 and the Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989, during the summer vacation.
They mentioned the day and time of their visit to the educational institutions for physical inspection of the buses and issued directions to ensure the presence of drivers and vehicles at the appointed hour.
Accordingly, they inspected each bus to find out whether it was having all the requisite documents, its road worthiness and also whether it was having emergency exits, fire alarms, fire extinguishers, first-aid kits and other safety gear and also their functioning status.
Subsequently, the transport authorities served notices on the educational institutions asking them to carry out some repair works and make the buses roadworthy with a caution that any lapses during their subsequent inspection would result in fines.
As per the data available with the state transport authorities about all 28 districts, nearly 22,913 buses have been registered with educational institutions. Of these, 12,354 buses were inspected physically during the summer vacation in the premises of educational institutions.
Of these, 7,430 buses were found to be road worthy while 4,792 buses required repairs or changes. Nearly 540 vehicles being used for educational institutions were found to be having no valid documents.
At the time of inspection of buses, the transport authorities carried out an awareness campaign among the drivers on road safety norms in the educational institutions itself as teams of officials visited there for inspection of vehicles.
Joint transport commissioner (enforcement) Sivarama Prasad said, “After serving prior notices to the educational institutions and inspecting the buses for compliance with road safety norms during summer vacation, we have started inspecting them on road from Tuesday, booking cases and imposing penalty for failure to comply with the safety norms.”