Pneumatic doors or normal door shutters for city bus services? Once the government takes a call on this, the danger posed by city services operating without door shutters could be avoided.
For, this indecision continues to restrain the government from effectively countering a legal challenge posed by bus owners in the High Court against a notification issued by the government last year.
The notification making door shutters mandatory for stage carriers operating services in the city and town areas across the State should have come into effect from July 1 last year to ensure safety of passengers and to put an end to the travel on footboards.
Bus owners opposed the notification on the grounds that installing normal doors posed operational difficulties to them and hence should be replaced by pneumatic doors. Curiously, the same bus owners had vehemently opposed, citing practicality and viability issues, a draft notification issued by the State government in 2011 aimed at introducing pneumatic doors.
While considering the petition filed by bus owners, the court asked the Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) to file a statement on behalf of the government though it didn’t issued any interim stay on the implementation of the notification.
Clarification sought
Consequently, the government counsel had sought clarification from the government on whether it wanted pneumatic doors or normal door shutters for city services.
But a government response was not forthcoming more than ten months since then, leaving the case in a stalemate.
“The government will soon come up with a response on the matter,” a senior MVD official said.
The absence of doors in city bus services continues to endanger passengers’ lives. A 65-year-old person from Alappuzha was killed recently when he was thrown off a speeding bus in the city.