The Hindu : New Delhi News : Court seeks reply from Govt. on Blueline buses

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Wednesday, Jul 11, 2007
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New Delhi

Court seeks reply from Govt. on Blueline buses

Staff Reporter

Expresses concern over the rising number of accidents; suggests replacement of the entire fleet

Photo: V.V. Krishnan

Heavy rush: Passengers trying to board a DTC bus in the Capital on Tuesday after most Blueline buses went off the roads due to a drive by the traffic police.

NEW DELHI: Taking suo motu note of the sudden increase in fatal road accidents involving Blueline buses here in the Capital, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday sought replies from the Delhi Government on five counts, including the possibility of sending these buses off the road.

Issuing notices to the State Government and the Transport Department, a Division Bench of the Court comprising Justice Mukul Mudgal and Justice P. K. Bhasin passed a detailed 10-page order expressing deep concern over the accidents in different parts of the Capital in the past few days and suggesting immediate replacement of the entire Blueline fleet with a safer public transport system.

Referring to the 1997 guideline of the Supreme Court fixing the maximum speed limit for these buses at 40 km per hour, the Bench asked the Government to reply whether it was being implemented and, if not, what action was being taken again the erring bus owners.

The Bench also directed the Government to report what action had been taken against the buses involved in fatal accidents since January 2005. It further asked the Government to inform it about the buses reportedly owned by families of Delhi Police officers.

The Bench appointed Kailash Vasdev amicus curae to assist the Court in the case.

The Government and the Transport Department have been asked to respond to the Court’s queries by July 31, the next date of hearing.

Meanwhile, the Court will on Wednesday take up for hearing a public interest litigation seeking immediate removal of the Blueline buses from Delhi’s roads.

800 challans issued

In a massive crackdown on Blueline buses, the State Transport Department and the Delhi Traffic Police on Tuesday issued over 800 challans and impounded about 200 buses as part of a drive to discipline the drivers.

Fearing prosecution, a large number of private buses stayed off the roads leaving daily commuters in the lurch.

Neha, a teacher, and her colleagues had to wait for almost 45 minutes for a bus plying on route 883. “I board the bus from Pitampura every morning for the school and normally the wait is for eight to 10 minutes. But today we had to wait for a long time for the bus,” said Neha.

A resident of Patparganj, Kishore said he had to wait for over 30 minutes to catch a bus for Connaught Place where his office is located. In the evening too, thousands of stranded commuters were seen waiting at various bus stands particularly those outside the Metro stations. Despite many plans being drawn up by the Government, the Delhi Transport Corporation failed to operate additional services to provide relief to daily commuters.

During the day, the Transport Department impounded 69 buses, issued challans to 92 buses for various offences and checked around 300 buses. Six joint teams of the traffic police and the Transport Department officials were deployed at different places including Shivaji terminus, Mori Gate, Central Secretariat and Shahdara.

Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) M. S. Upadhye said over 600 vehicles were challaned and 126 impounded till 2 p.m.

About 4,100 Blueline buses were prosecuted and 688 of them impounded during a drive launched by the traffic police against the killer buses from July 1 to July 7. Over 60 drivers have been arrested during the on-going drive.

According to the traffic police, 61 people were killed and 144 were injured by the killer buses that were involved in 189 accidents reported this year till June.

The traffic police issued 53,093 challans to violating Blueline buses and arrested 825 drivers. While 5,928 buses were impounded, 3,073 were prosecuted for rash and negligent driving, 759 for permit violation, 11 for drunken driving, 58 for allowing unauthorised person to drive, 1,415 for wrong overtaking, 625 for being without speed-governors and 227 for traffic signal jumping.

Of the 61 killed by Blueline buses till June, 28 were pedestrians, 12 were passengers and 10 were two-wheeler riders. According to the traffic police, most accidents involving pedestrians occurred mostly during the day time. Most accidents were reported during the rush hour -- between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. and 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. An analysis of the data has also revealed that two-wheeler riders are more vulnerable to accident between 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.

According to the police records, DTC buses were involved in 77 accidents, 25 of them fatal, till June. The police impounded 724 DTC buses and arrested 85 drivers, prosecuted 204 vehicles for rash and negligent driving, 448 for wrong overtaking, 40 for being without speed-governor, 70 for jumping traffic signal and five for allowing unauthorised person to drive. From July 1 to July 7, 102 buses were prosecuted, five drivers arrested and 28 buses impounded.

Of the 25 killed, 13 were pedestrians, three passengers and five two-wheeler riders. Eight fatal accidents involving DTC buses were reported between 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.

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