Poor condition of government buses gives jitters to crew

Sources said that the state transport department is operating around 12,000 mofussil buses, including 10,000 town buses in various cities across the state and this will exclude Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) in the city. Out of 22,000 buses, half of the buses are operated beyond the prescribed life span (six years). 

A driver, on condition of anonymity, said “We are taking buses from the depot with high apprehension. Though we inform our higher-ups about faults such as brake failure and other technical snags in engines, they simply yell at us and instruct us to take off.” 

Similarly, a technician explained that all the buses should undergo maintenance - breakdown maintenance and preventive maintenance. “To avoid a bus from catching fire, there should be preventive maintenance, in which we have to check wire bunches routinely. There might be a short-circuit in the wire bunch leading to fire,” he pointed out. But, nowadays officials do not care about those faults and fail to recruit mechanics, he added. 

R Natarajan, Treasurer, Labour Progressive Federation, said, “Though we have been demanding transport officials to recruit technicians and replace old buses, 

demands are not met and we are at the receiving end.” When contacted, an official (Technical) in Viluppuram, said, “we are recruiting staff and such fire incidents are rare.” 

According to norms, there should be 125 technicians for 100 state mofussil buses (1.25 technician per bus). However, at present there are only 65 technicians to take care of 100 buses (0.65 technician per bus).