HC permits BMTC to go ahead with procurement of 840 buses

BMTC informed that new fleet of buses was compliant with requirements of physically challenged

The High Court of Karnataka on Monday permitted Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) to issue work orders in relation to the procurement of 840 buses.

A division bench, headed by Chief Justice Prasanna B Varale, which passed the order, also admitted a PIL petition on the issue of the floor height of the buses. The petition was filed by Sunil Kumar Jain, a Bengalurean, challenging the tender notice issued by the BMTC which prescribes the height of the bus chassis to be 1,000 mm.

The petition stated that the tender specification does not prescribe the height of the bus.

According to the petitioner, certain aspects of the tender notification are in violation of the Urban Bus Specification II, which stipulates that all cities with a population greater than one million will only procure buses with a floor height of 400 mm or 650 mm, the Central Motor Vehicle Rules 1989 and the Supreme Court judgments.

At the hearing, the BMTC informed the court that the new fleet of buses was compliant with the accessibility requirements of the physically challenged. The court was also told that in each bus, four seats were reserved for the physically challenged, two each for men/women and that at present 21 per cent of the buses operated by the BMTC fully provide accessibility to wheelchair passengers.

The court noted that the photographs placed on record showed that the new buses available in the fleet of public transport vehicles were wheelchair-passenger-friendly.

“As BMTC is in the process of taking various steps so as to comply with the Right of Persons with Disabilities Act, there cannot be any dispute that it (BMTC) would have to take these steps in a phased manner. It will be as good as expecting an impossibility if BMTC has to comply with requirements as petitioner is seeking in one go and therefore, the BMTC is required to be given some time to take appropriate steps in a phase-wise manner,” the bench said.