Implementation of the Tamil Nadu Motor Vehicles (Regulation and Control of School Buses) Special Rules, 2012, has been effective in preventing accidents involving school buses in the city, according to transport authorities.
Speaking on the sidelines of fitness inspection of school buses at Armed Reserve Police Grounds here on Wednesday, P. Muruganandam, Joint Transport Commissioner of Madurai, said, “There have been no reports of accidents involving school buses in the recent years. We ensure that the vehicles are subjected to periodic fitness inspections.” With only a few days left for the schools to reopen for the next academic year, authorities are leaving no stone unturned to ensure that the strict guidelines laid down by the State government are complied with in toto .
Around 800 school buses were brought to the ground on Wednesday and 383 received clearance on the spot while 100 vehicles were not issued clearance because of minor defects. “Most of the buses had first aid kits with medicines that were past expiry date. A few others had minor defects regarding reflecting tapes. We have asked the school authorities to rectify them and come again for inspection,” said K. Kalyanakumar, Regional Transport Officer (RTO) of Madurai North. The remaining buses would be inspected before the first week of June, he added.
M. Singaravelu, RTO of Madurai South, said there were no major faults in any of the school buses. “When special rules were implemented, initially the schools faced difficulty in modifying buses to fix emergency exits. Now, all the buses have proper emergency exits, fire extinguishers, speed governors and satisfy 20 other parameters,” Mr. Muruganandam said.
Collector L. Subramanian, Superintendent of Police Vijayendra S. Bidari and Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Samanth Rohan Rajendra also inspected the vehicles.
Strict vigilExpressing concern over lack of safety measures in share autorickshaws and other vehicles that transport children to schools, authorities from Transport Department and Education Department said there would be strict vigil after the reopening of schools.
“We will conduct surprise inspections on other private commercial vehicles. There were reports that a few school children rode motorcycles to schools. We have already instructed the school managements to prevent this practice,” Mr. Kalyanakumar said.
Chief Educational Officer C. Amuthavalli said the Education Department would work in tandem with the transport authorities to ensure safety of students.
