Recall all sleeper buses, and allow only if fully compliant

The investigation is sure to throw up more violations, but it should also identify the officials who facilitated these and hold them criminally liable.

Remember the double-decker sleeper coach, travelling from Ludhiana to Motihari in Bihar, that overturned on the Purvanchal Expressway in February this year, killing five and injuring over 40? Investigations revealed that the bus had permission for 16 sleeper berths and 32 seats, but had been modified illegally to create 43 berths and nine seats. The crucial emergency exits were sealed with nuts and bolts. It had 67 pending challans for traffic violations. Yet it traversed through various states without anyone stopping it!

There should be a fire detection and alarm system in the coach and a fire detection and suppression system in the engine compartment.

The berth configuration should only be 1 by 1 or 1 by 2 (one berth on one side and two on the other). Their orientation should always be longitudinal to the axis of the vehicle. The vehicles should also be fitted with a driver drowsiness alert system and two fire extinguishers. These buses should have a minimum of four emergency exits — one of them an emergency door at the end of the gangway or in the middle of the bus on the opposite side of the service door. Emergency exits and doors should have retro-reflective tape for clear identification. Each berth should be provided with a hammer to break the window glass in an emergency.

However, accident investigations as well as special inspections by transport departments after fire disasters have shown the extent of violation of these rules and standards. After the AC sleeper bus fire on the Jaisalmer-Jodhpur highway on October 14 last year, it came to light that the bus owner had illegally modified an ordinary bus into an AC sleeper coach by extending the body beyond the approved length to accommodate more seats and sleeper berths. Passenger seats obstructed the passage to the emergency door and the vehicle did not have the mandated fire detection and suppression system. How did the operator get the fitness certificate for the vehicle? Twenty-four passengers were charred to death and 11 were injured because of such gross indifference to passenger safety.

It was the same story following the devastating fire in a Hyderabad-Bengaluru sleeper coach on October 24 last year, leading to the death of 19 of the 40 passengers. Here again, there were no fire safety measures. The emergency exits were jammed or locked and worse, the registration certificate for the bus showed only its seating capacity. It was not even registered as a sleeper coach!

During March-April this year, the Tirupati district transport department checked inter-state sleeper coaches coming from Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Puducherry and found that 95 per cent of the buses violated one or more mandatory provisions. Emergency exits were either locked, blocked or rendered unusable due to alterations. Many did not have hammers and fire extinguishers and several had constructed additional berths (2 by 2 configuration), reducing the width of the aisle, affecting quick evacuation in an emergency.

Overloading, unqualified drivers, and expired permits were some of the other violations (Deccan Chronicle). An India Today survey of sleeper coaches in Delhi, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Bhopal and Jaipur this January had also shown several safety violations.

As per government records, there are 49,616 (as on February 6) registered sleeper buses in the country. It’s anybody’s guess as to how many are cent per cent compliant with the law. In fact, it is said that many transporters illegally modify vehicles to increase the number of berths after obtaining the fitness certificate, adversely impacting the safety and stability of the vehicle. They sail through the fitness certificate renewal, thanks to corruption in the system!

In January this year, while announcing that sleeper buses would be allowed to be built only by automobile companies or manufacturers accredited by the Centre and not by local and manual body builders, the government said that all existing buses must be retrofitted with key safety features. However, before such retrofitting is undertaken, the vehicles must be examined to determine whether they are structurally sound.

The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways must recall all sleeper buses under Section 110A of the CMV Act, have each of them fully inspected and allow only those which are fully compliant with the law to operate. Of the remaining, only those found to be structurally safe should be allowed to retrofit all the prescribed safety features, and permitted to operate after certification.

Those that are structurally unsafe must be permanently deregistered and scrapped.

Rough estimates put the number of passengers who travel by intercity sleeper buses at about 245 million per year. They have a right to safe and secure travel, and the government must ensure it.

— The writer is a consumer affairs expert