NEW DELHI: Amid reports of widespread non-compliance of safety norms in sleeper coach buses, road transport minister Nitin Gadkari on Monday directed officials to carry out checking of all such buses by govt-approved testing agencies — ARAI, CIRT and iCAT — and ensure compliance.He was chairing a review meeting on the recent bus fires in Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh — which killed over 40 people — with top ministry officials. The minister was informed that out of around 60 sleeper buses, registered with RTOs since Sept 1, only a few had got type approval.Type approval of bus bodies is mandatory under the new Bus Body Code, which came into force from Sept. It was also flagged that in several cases registration of buses were renewed even without visiting transport department offices.Officials said taking note of this serious violation, Gadkari sought action against erring bus body builders and also transport department officials for lapses. At present, there are over 37,000 sleeper coach buses in the country and most of these were built in different years. “Though there was a view that ensuring high quality bus body building can be achieved better when bus manufacturers’ build them, it was also felt that such a decision would impact a large number of people engaged by bus body builders. So, the focus is to see that these bus body builders also comply with norms,” said an official.The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) last week directed all chief secretaries to take immediate action, including to recall buses flouting mandatory safety norms and carry out rectifications. These include removing the partition between driver and passenger sections, installation of fire detection and suppression systems (FDSS) and stricter checking of accreditation and certification of bus body builders. The commission had termed the violation of motor vehicle rules and automotive standards, laying down mandatory norms for sleeper buses by bus body builders and officials, as “criminal negligence”.The road transport ministry is also working on a plan to prepare a mandatory checklist of safety features that RTOs must verify while renewing registration and fitness certificates when these visit offices.
