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New Delhi
By Our Staff Reporter
Incidentally, while the Delhi Metro had found an able guide and friend in the Union Ministry of Urban Development in pleading its case for raising the speed limit, the DTC has no one to air its grievances. And the sole supplier of speed governors, Bangalore-based VDO, has raised the matter in the Delhi High Court. This had forced the Corporation - which has installed about 1,000 speed governors -- on the back-foot and got it worried that its failure to comply with the rules pertaining to observing the 40 kmph speed limit may invite the wrath of the court. As such, the DTC officials had submitted before a Bench of the High Court that it was difficult to ascertain which drivers were actually tampering with the speed governors as any of the buses could be driven by different drivers at different times. However, the officials insist that the fact that the drivers tamper with the governors also indicates that the speed limit is highly unrealistic. "When the drivers working for a Government-owned corporation feel the need to drive at higher speeds and tend to tamper with the meters when they are unable to do so, it is time to find the root cause of the problem,'' says a senior DTC official. Admitting that since the rules pertaining to fixing the maximum speed limit of 40 kmph for commercial vehicles - that were framed by the Government on the intervention of the Supreme Court -- could only be changed if the apex court reviews the practical aspect of this speed limit, the officials say they are at a loss to decide how to discipline the drivers. "The Ring Road service covers a span of nearly 50 km in over three hours giving an average speed of less than 20 kmph. Likewise, the Outer Mudrika traverses over 90 kms in about seven hours, which is the duration of a driver's normal shift. At this any actual reduction in the speed limit will only add to the travelling time and increase the frustration among both passengers and drivers.'' Pointing out how the drivers were being forced into taking the law into their own hands, another DTC official said a close scrutiny of the bus records taken by the Automatic Vehicle Tracking System has also indicated that drivers who run buses on Ring Road often tend to even cross the 60 kmph mark on certain open sections of the road. "So while as of now we are achieving the nearly 15 kmph average, with proper implementation of the scheme this would come down to around 10 kmph and besides the DTC buses, even other vehicles following them would be forced to crawl.'' In the meantime, DTC officials said speed governors of a Delhi-based company, Sturdy, have also been approved by the Pune-based Automobile Research Association of India. While with this two companies have been cleared for meeting the specifications, five others are still being screened to see if speed governors provided by them meet the prescribed guidelines.
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