Was the Volvo multi-axle bus that was involved in the accident in Mahabubnagar district overloaded? While Jabbar Travels representatives claimed that the capacity of the bus was 44 to 47, authorities concerned said that 45 bodies had been recovered. Apart from this, there were five survivors, excluding the driver and the cleaner, taking the total of passengers on the bus to 50.
Shakeel Jabbar, owner of Jabbar Travels, said the bus was not overloaded. He said that the bus was packed when it left here. He did not rule out the possibility of the driver having accommodated more passengers from other pick-up points.
“The fitness certificate was renewed on October 5 this year and is covered by insurance. The bus is leased out by Diwakar Travels and we run the service. We are trying to ascertain the cause of the accident,” he added.
The agency said that two buses operate from the city to Hyderabad every night. However, there were some last-minute changes and details of one trip were merged with the other, making it difficult to trace all passenger details.
Agency sources said that apart from Kalasipalya, from where the bus began, passengers were also picked up from Hebbal (one person), BTM Layout (one person) Koramangala (two people), Marathahalli (three people), Majestic (one person), Anand Rao Circle (12 people) Domlur (three people), Mehkri Circle (one person) and Bellandur.
