The Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) has filed charges against 48 buses in Kochi city and its suburban areas on Wednesday as part of its drive to ensure that all buses have door shutters in operational condition. Ernakulam RTO Jojy P. Jose said that only about 30% of the buses needed to fit doors now.
Of the 48 buses against which charges have been filed, 28 will not be allowed to operate services until they fit the doors. The other 20 buses were found to have doors. But the doors were not being shut during services. In such cases, action will be taken against bus conductors.
It was found during the drive that 28 buses in the city had no door shutters while two city buses needed fitness certificates. They are not in a condition to operate passenger services and will not be allowed to ply until they obtain fitness certificates. Enforcement RTOs Manoj Kumar and Mr. Jose led the operations on Wednesday. M.B. Sathyan, president of Bus Operators’ Association, said that only a small portion of the 312 buses operating within Kochi city needed to fit doors. He said there was a shortage of workers at workshops to carry out the door fitting works. The recent in hartals and other shutdowns in the State too had added to the woes of bus owners, he added.
Mr. Sathyan also said that there were around 540 buses across Ernakulam district that needed to fit doors. The number had come down from the earlier 650. He said that all the buses that needed to fit doors had provided measurements to workshops and that the work would be carried out at the earliest.
K.P. Udayan, a government employee, who commutes to Kakkanad daily, welcomed the MVD drive. He said that doors ensured safety of passengers, especially during rush hours. T.J. Xavier from Kumbalanghi said that doors should be an essential part of passenger buses to ensure that passengers did not fall off the bus.
