After failing to keep check on over-speeding Chandigarh Transport Undertaking (CTU) buses and school buses plying in the city, the UT Administration has decided to install speed governors in all the buses in a month.
While reviewing the status regarding installation of speed governors in all the CTU buses and school buses plying in union territory of Chandigarh, KK Sharma, Adviser to the UT Administrator, on Thursday directed the UT Director Transport and Secretary State Transport Authority (STA) to take all necessary steps to ensure that the speed governors are functional at a speed limit of 50 kmph in all the buses of CTU and school buses positively in a month’s time.
The proposal to install speed governors in the buses was mooted by the UT Administration in the year 2008, yet a large number of buses are plying in the city without the installation of speed governors. During the meeting, STA Authority and UT Traffic Police were directed to conduct regular inspections to detect cases of over-speeding in CTU/school buses due to lack of speed governor/non-functioning of the same for any technical reasons or otherwise and take appropriate action to deal with the same.
In the wake of accidents in which residents were crushed to death by a rashly driven CTU buses, the installation of speed governors have been made mandatory in all the buses plying in the city.
On May 9, a 35-year-old woman was crushed to death by a CTU bus. last year also, several fatal accidents were caused by CTU buses in the city. Three accidents were reported and all the three took place on 17th of a month. A school girl Anupama was hit by CTU bus on July 17, a school kid Pooja was hit by CTU bus on August 17 and later, a cyclist Ram Bahadur was hit by CTU bus causing his death.
Even as the CTU drivers were given a training session for driving last year, the cases of fatal accidents due to the CTU buses is still prevalent. The training programme was initiated by the CTU last year following the involvement of CTU bus drivers in fatal accidents. The CTU has a fleet of total 517 buses including 283 city buses and 100 low floor buses under JNNURM scheme.