Pune road mayhem-waiting to happen?
January 25th, 2012 - 8:44 pm ICT by IANSPune, Jan 25 (IANS) In a shocking revelation, it is learnt that a majority of the state transport public buses in Maharashtra are fitted with an auto-start mechanism, making them vulnerable to incidents like Wednesday’s bus hijack in which nine people were killed in Pune.
A top Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation Employees Union (MSRTCEU) leader, while expressing grief over the morning incident in which a mentally ill driver hijacked a bus and ran over nine pedestrians, admitted that “a majority of the ST buses, may be 40-50 percent of the fleet” are fitted with a button start ignition, like in some popular two-wheeler models in the market.
“There are no ignition keys for a variety of reasons. The buses run on auto-start ignition,” MSRTCEU general secretary Hanumant Tate told IANS. The union has a majority strength among the 100,000-plus employees of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC).
Top MSRTC officials, including the spokesperson, remained incommunicado all day despite several attempts by IANS.
A state transport bus driver in a northwest Mumbai depot said the auto-start ignition was fitted a few years ago, mainly for the sake of convenience.
“Many times, the keys get misplaced or lost, especially in huge bus depots or the remote ones in far-flung villages. Getting a duplicate key often results in massive operational delays for the passengers. So a few years ago, button start was introduced,” the driver explained to IANS, requesting anonymity.
When queried whether anybody could operate or drive away any such auto-start buses, he replied in the affirmative. “There is little or no security at most state transport depots, barring the very big ones like Parel in south-central Mumbai,” he added.
However, Hanumant Tate said that in view of Wednesday’s gruesome tragedy, the management could review the auto-start mechanism in state transport buses.
Though officially MSRTC came into existence in 1950, the first Pune-Ahmednagar bus service was launched in 1948 under the guidance of the Morarji Desai, then home minister of the erstwhile Bombay state.
Today, MSRTC has grown to a fleet of 16,500 buses, around 250 depots and six regional offices.
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Tags: anonymity, auto start, bus depots, bus driver, general secretary, hijack, maharashtra state road transport corporation, morning incident, mumbai, parel, pedestrians, public buses, road mayhem, road transport, shocking revelation, spokesperson, st buses, state transport buses, transport bus, two wheeler