BMTC’s BS 4 midi buses to undergo checks

By NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: After repeated fire incidents, BMTC has decided to get around 183 Ashok Leyland BS4 midi buses off the road and from Monday onwards the bus manufacturer will carry out a thorough check of these buses.

In the last three months there were three cases of these buses catching fire and putting the lives of passengers and crew at risk.

BMTC Vice Chairman M.R. Venkatesh has directed the Managing Director (MD) and the Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) to get all the midi buses of the 2014 batch undergo a check from the R&D team of Ashok Leyland to ascertain the root cause for the fire incidents.

As per a statement released by the Corporation, “The manufacturers must ensure that there will be no repeat of such incidents, only then the buses will be operational. In case there is a repeat of another bus blaze case even after the certification from the manufacturers, the CME and the depot manager will be held responsible and will face stringent action. The buses will come under the scanner from Monday onwards.”

It is claimed that the Ashok Leyland team conducted a safety assessment of all midi-buses and these buses have completed only 4-5 lakh km and are not too old. But three buses got gutted and the remaining 183 buses will undergo intense checks.