GB Nagar collects ₹1.29 crore in fines in eight months from passenger buses flouting norms

The Gautam Budh Nagar regional transport office (RTO) has collected ₹1.29 crore in fines from passenger buses flouting traffic rules between April 1 and November 20 this year, putting the lives of passengers at risk, said RTO officials, adding that the fines were imposed during random checking in the district.

After two back-to-back cases of passenger buses catching fire last Thursday, the authorities, including the RTO, traffic police, and fire department, intensified checking to curb any untoward incidents.

Gautam Budh Nagar, assistant regional transport enforcement 2, Dr Udit Narayan Pandey said, “The RTO was conducting the routine checking of passenger buses regularly in the district. The buses, which caught fire on the Noida-Greater Nodia Expressway and Yamuna Expressway on Thursday, were found fit on paper.”

He said the rest of the checking related to fire safety is part of the fire department’s investigation.

Pandey said, “If any visible violation, such as old tyres, faulty brakes, lack of a first-aid box, overloading of buses or incomplete fitness papers, is found during the checking, then the RTO would penalise them or seize the bus on the spot. As per the rules, every bus aggregator should regularly check their buses before sending them on the road.”

According to the data provided by the RTO, it has issued fines against 571 buses and seized 266 buses in eight months, from April to November 20. A total of ₹1.29 crore was collected in fines during the checking.

Gautam Budh Nagar chief fire officer Pradeep Kumar Chaubey said, “The fire department checks only fire extinguishers on passenger buses. On those two buses, the fire extinguisher was installed, and it was suspected that due to the sudden nature of the fire, they forgot to use it.”

Parallelly, the Noida traffic police also conducts checking drives on passenger buses. Noida traffic deputy commissioner of police Anil Kumar Yadav said, “During the road safety month drive, traffic police penalised around 533 buses for plying without having fitness certificate, 64 for overloading and 45 buses were seized for violating norms. The fines were issued between November 1 and November 18.”

“Since Thursday, the traffic police have intensified checking and fined as many as 25 buses for jeopardising the safety of passengers,” Yadav said.

On Thursday, two passenger buses, heading towards Bihar and Darbhanga, allegedly caught fire on the Noida-Greater Expressway and the Yamuna Expressway. Prima facie, it was revealed that the fires were a result of a short-circuit on the bus. No casualty was reported as passengers alighted the bus safely on noticing the fire.