After the theft of a bus at Central Bus Station and the alleged culprits ripping it apart in Nanded, Maharashtra, buses of the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation will now be secure. For, the transport juggernaut has tested a new locking system which will be fitted to its buses in a month.
‘Inexpensive system’
According to senior TSRTC officials, the idea was to create an inexpensive locking system which could be built using in-house resources. The locking system is intended to be fitted in over 900 buses which are in use by drivers of the TSRTC’s night-out service.
A clamp will be fitted to the immovable steering pipe or column. From here, another clamp made of mild steel (MS) flat will be connected. This, in turn, will enable the steering wheel to be secured with a padlock.
“We intend to hand over these locks to the drivers in a month. The fabrication of these clamps will be done in our own facilities such as bus body building units or even depots. The funds that are required to buy locks will not be much,” the official said.
Last month, the TSRTC was in for a shock when a Metro Express bus went missing from the Central Bus Station late in the night. The driver, identified as J Venkatesh, who was on night-out duty had parked the vehicle at a designated spot, before entering the crew rest area. The next day, he realised that the bus was stolen. Hours after the incident, TSRTC officials had said that they were contemplating a locking system for buses and began identifying cost-effective locking solutions which could be implemented in a short period and without much effort.