200 school buses give fitness test a miss on last day in Ghaziabad

GHAZIABAD: More than 200 private buses engaged by schools to ferry students missed an inspection drive conducted by the transport department on its last day on Sunday.
The department has now decided to conduct surprise checks on vehicles engaged by schools to see if they are fitted with equipment as listed in the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court.

On the first day of the drive on April 8, only 712 of the 1,400-odd buses across Ghaziabad district had turned up. Of them, 125 were found plying without necessary safety gear in place. During the second and last phase of the drive on Sunday, another 308 buses turned up, of which 37 were found without safety features.

“The buses were examined on an 11-point agenda as laid down by the apex court. We have issued notices to the managements of those private schools whose buses were found lacking the safety features. They have to install the features and report to the transport department in seven days,” said ARTO Biswajeet Singh.

The department had directed the schools that had not sent their buses for inspection on April 8 to get the vehicles checked in the second phase. Many of the buses were found to lack footrests and have jammed emergency doors. Some of the vehicles did not have the contact details of the school printed on them. A total of 1,020 private school buses were inspected by the transport department during the drive carried out on directions issued from Lucknow.