With the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) buses increasingly turning into ‘killer fleet’, the Delhi Traffic Police will take up the proposal with the Delhi High Court to impound the buses.
At present, only private buses, involved in fatal accidents, can be impounded. The High Court had directed early this year not to impound DTC buses as it would hurt the daily commuters adversely.
The Transport Department will start a disciplining drive from next week for the drivers employed with DTC on a contractual basis as well as the cluster bus drivers. "DTC drivers on contract and the cluster bus drivers will be re-trained at the Institute of Driving and Training Research (IDTR), Maruti," said Puneet Goel, Transport Commissioner.
A DTC bus, on Tuesday, had crushed to death a schoolboy in Sangam Vihar area taking the total number of fatal accidents committed by the State-run buses to 50 this year. last year, DTC buses had killed 43 people. An upsurge has also been observed in the number of passengers killed during boarding and de-boarding from five last year, to eight this year. Concerned over the grave trend, senior traffic police official pointed that on the pretext of the commuters' convenience, a blind eye cannot be turned towards serious traffic violations committed by DTC buses.
According to traffic police, DTC buses have been involved in 8,590 traffic violations this year, which include serious offences such as rash driving and driving beyond the speed limit, red light jumping and not following lanes. "Figures suggest that there has been rising indiscipline by the DTC bus fleet. Till date, DTC buses have been involved in 3,704 cases of dangerous driving and over-speeding. The cases of traffic signal violations are 500," said Additional Commissioner of Police (traffic), Anil Shukla.
At present, only the buses involved in fatal accidents are impounded. For other serious offences such as dangerous driving, the offenders are issued challans of Rs 2,000 and set free. "Impounding the buses (including the cluster buses), will deter the drivers from driving rashly. The move can be expected to be implemented by next week, once the High Court gives the green signal. It will then depend on the court to levy the challan. Though 299 buses were impounded early this year for serious offences, after the HC's directive, only the buses involved in fatal accidents are now impounded. A total of 569 drivers have been arrested for serious violations and 385 challans have been issued by chasing the buses," added the official.