WARANGAL: A fire broke out in the TSRTC’s Warangal – 1 depot in Hanamkonda at about 2:30 am on Thursday in which five buses caught fire before the fire brigade arrived and put out the fire. No loss of life was reported in the accident. Warangal Regional Manager, T Surya Kiran, said the fire started in the ‘Rajdhani’ AC bus which had broken down about a month ago and was getting ready to be taken to the workshop for renovation. The fire spread to two express buses and two ‘Palle Velugu’ buses which were parked beside and opposite the Rajadhani bus. A few other buses were partially burnt.
The workers in the depot noticed the fire and alerted the fire station which is just 500 m away from the depot. In the meantime, they started moving other parked buses away from the fire. The firefighters put off the fire before it reached the diesel tank or the tyres of the buses. Had the diesel tank of even one of the buses exploded, the damage would have been much more. Officials say the fire could have started due to a short circuit.
Transport Minister P Mahender Reddy visited the depot on Thursday evening and took stock of the situation. He inspected the buses which were damaged in the incident.He directed the road transport officials to conduct an enquiry and ascertain the cause of the accident. He said the TSRTC had incurred a loss of Rs 20 lakh due to the fire.
TSRTC managing director in-charge, Sunil Sharma, said an expert team from NIT Warangal would inspect the bus and identify the cause of fire. If there were any faults in the design of the bus, they would be rectified, he said. The police have registered a case and is probing the conspiracy angles. Forensic experts also visited the site.
