Principal Secretary of Road Transport, Ravi Kumar, said that Volvo buses in State have been given a deadline to change their design and to have an emergency door.
Speaking to media during the workshop on ‘Intelligent Transport Enterprise Innovation and Planning Scheduling’, here, on Monday, he said that following the tragedies related to infernos in Volvos, the company has been told by the government to make changes in the buses with one emergency door, which should be made visible inside and outside with fluorescent strips.
He said that a demonstration will be given to the passengers as a measure to increase awareness, apart from distributing handbills with safety instructions.
There have been complaints on the hammers kept in the Volvos going missing, which are sometimes stolen by passengers. Playful children are also seen damaging the windows. “There is a need to stress on the safety issues,” he added.
He said that private transport operators have also been directed to follow instructions strictly. They have been told to maintain information of passengers directly rather than having the tickets booked in the agent’s name. “Heavy vehicle transport drivers are available in plenty, and thus unqualified drivers should be strictly avoided.
The private transport operators have also been told to provide the list of passengers as well the information of the drivers to the Transport department. KSRTC itself has been recruiting nearly 5,000 drivers per year,” he said.
He also said that drivers should not work for more than eight hours, but could get their time extended to 10 hours after obtaining permission from the Labour department. There had to be two drivers on long routes and sufficient space for the additional driver to rest.
The minimum qualification for a driver should be eighth standard. “Strict action will be taken against violators,” he added.
He said, with the auto scheduling of the Intelligent Transport System (ITS), the staff can be used in the routes with crisis, frequency can maintained, most of all, commuters will be benefitted with timely buses. The energy will be utilised effectively to be efficient. The auto scheduling is in pipeline for Bangalore, while it has been started at Yelahanka route. Dharwad, Gulbarga will also be covered soon.
KRS and Ch’hill
Kumar said, The project has been implemented in two buses to Krishnaraja Sagar and one bus to Chamundi Hills. Presently, Rs 67,000 is being saved per day and an extra earning of Rs 80,000 is being done by utilising the resources to other routes.
He said, ITS was doing well with the KSRTC end, while, there could have been problems with lack of information with people to utilise the system. He said, the problems will be soon rectified.