Another low-floor DTC bus catches fire in south Delhi; eighth such incident in nearly a month
Another low-floor DTC bus catches fire in south Delhi; eighth such incident in nearly a month
DTC bus fire continues to burn unabated, quite literally. In eighth such incident in less than a month, another low-floor CNG bus caught fire in south Delhi on Monday.
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Charred: Burnt remains of theu00a0 DTC bus which was carrying school children. It went up in flames in east Delhi recentlyu00a0File photo |
The incident took place at around 3.25 pm when the bus was near Moolchand Hospital. A passenger seated in the bus running on Route No. 323 - Dhaula Kuan to Noida Sector 62- noticed the fire and alerted the driver.
The driver evacuated the bus safely and a call was made to the Delhi Fire Service Department. No one was injured in the incident.
The Tata Motors, which is responsible for the maintenance of low-floor buses, said a short-circuit in the battery cable led to the sparks. No damage was caused to the engine.
"The bus was driven to Sukhdev Vihar depot after the incident. Precautionary checks conducted on it ruled out any other problem," said an official.
"The driver had noticed smoke emanating from its real wheels in his left rear-view mirror.u00a0 Probably, smoke from the silencer settled down near the tail pipe due to condensation.u00a0 And it was mistook as a fire incident due to a technical fault," he said.
In reference to the earlier incident involving DTC low-floor bus on December 19, the Tata Motors clarified that there was no problem with the braking system of the vehicle and denied that it had caught fire.
The automobile giant said it had started the process of a comprehensive check on all low-floor buses plying in the capital and that there was no inherent manufacturing defect in the buses.
The Incidents of fire in the top-of-the-line buses have raised a question mark over the government's plan of replacing the privately-owned bluelines with 3500 new low-floor DTC buses before the 2020 Commonwealth.
Commuters, who were once happy with the swanky buses, now travel in shadow of fear. Swati Malhotra, a resident of Malviya Nagar, said, "The number of DTC buses running on roads has drastically gone up. But now I try to avoid travelling Delhi's swanky bus because it has turned into death trap."
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The Delhi government has instituted an inquiry into the series of such incidents. The government had earlier imposed a hefty fine of Rs four crore on Tata Motors for "not properly" maintaining the low-floor buses it manufactured. It had also decided to withhold a payment of Rs 150 crore to the Tatas and warned of legal action if corrective steps were not taken by the automobile giant.
However, Tata Motors has cited bad road condition as the reason behind the mishaps.
As per the contract, Tata Motors is responsible for maintenance of the 800 bus fleet supplied to DTC. |
