RTO seizes 10 buses without emergency doors

Mangalore, May 4: Officials at Mangalore Regional Transport Offices have seized 10 private buses that do not have emergency doors as mandated in wake of accidents involving Volvo buses in Karnataka.

The department had earlier announced that no buses would be allowed to ply after April 30, if they had not installed emergency doors.

The Karnataka government had issued an ultimatum to the transport operators to fix the emergency exits in both private and KSRTC buses. The ultimatum followed several incidents involving buses catching fire leading to casualties. Besides the emergency exits, several other safety measures too had been prescribed.

Mangalore RTO booked cases against 28 buses, including eight belonging to Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation on Saturday.

RTO Afzal Ahmed Khan said that of the 10 seized buses, one is a KSRTC bus. In fact, on May 1, a total of 18 cases were booked for failing to install emergency doors.

“The seized buses will be detained for one day and an undertaking will be taken from the bus owners that emergency doors will be fitted. The owners will have to give the address of the garage where the emergency doors will be fitted and after installing the emergency door, it will be inspected by the officials and documents related to the buses will be handed over back to the bus owners,” he said.

The officials said the drive will continue in the coming days, till all the luxury buses comply with the rules.

In fact, the bus operators were told to install the emergency exits at a reasonable height on the side of the bus.

The directive comes following two incidents of Volvo buses catching fire, which led to the death of 52 passengers on-board.