Earlier this week seven people were charred to death and 40 others injured after a speeding Volvo bus travelling between Bangalore and Mumbai hit the culvert, causing the diesel tank to burst leading to a massive fire.
last month, in a similar incident, in Andhra Pradesh’s Mahabubnagar district, 45 passengers were burnt to death after the air-conditioner of the bus caught fire.
Recent incidents, which have taken a huge toll on human lives, have forced the Centre to expedite work on implementing the bus body code to enhance and ensure safety standards in buses.
Although the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) is still to notify a date for implementation of the bus body code, they have parallelly started working on initiating action to mandate truck body code. The proposal for a bus body code was mooted as early as 2007, under the Central Motor Vehicles Rule (CMVR), but its implementation is far from completion.
“The process to notify implementation date for bus body code under CMVR has already been initiated. It has also been decided to initiate action to mandate truck body code also under CMVRs after successful implementation of the bus body code,” MoRTH secretary Vijay Chibber said recently. “We haven’t set a date yet, but for ensuring safety on roads, body codes for trucks are also essential,” he said.
The Centre is hoping to achieve more uniformity and standardisation to help in quality control in transport vehicles. “With a uniform code for buses and trucks — the raw material suppliers can be expected to provide standard material — which will not only help in simplifying the registration processes at regional offices, but will also ensure quality control,” said an official from the Ministry.
As per the original notification from the Roads Ministry, Code of Practice for Bus Body Design & Application (AIS 052) was to be implemented from April 2011. With introduction of the bus code, every bus manufacturing unit is expected to obtain the accreditation certificate to demonstrate its capabilities to build buses as per safety standards set by Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), the testing and certification agency.
The new standard not just calls for a complete re-evaluation and re-work of the interior of buses, but also involves important fundamental changes at the design and development stage. Further, there are stringent tests that have to be undertaken before getting final accreditation.
While the challenge is tall for the major original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) like Tata Motors, Ashok leyland, Eicher Motors and Swaraj Mazda, as they all have been gearing up to meet the requirements of the new standard but it going to a tough ask for those in bus body manufacturing who belong to the unorganised sector, which is close to 2,000 players.