During an inspection by the Road Safety Council, 14 private school buses were found not roadworthy.

During the past two days, School Bus Inspection Committees of four Regional Transport Offices (RTOs) — K.K. Nagar, Valasaravakkam, Tondiarpet and Pulianthope — checked 150 buses.

While the staff at RTO K.K. Nagar and Valasaravakkam inspected 124 buses on Tuesday, those at Tondiarpet and Pulianthope RTOs checked 26 buses on Wednesday.

A senior official of the RTO, Valasaravakkam, said 12 buses were found not eligible for issuing fitness certificates by the committee. These buses had defective emergency doors and fire extinguishers beyond their expiry date. The committee has given the schools running these 12 buses a week’s time for fixing the deficiencies.

The annual exercise is carried out by the School Bus Inspection Committee, headed by the Chennai Collector, and comprising the Revenue Divisional Officer, the traffic police and the RTO staff. The inspection was being done under the Tamil Nadu Motor Vehicles (Regulation and Control of School Buses) Special Rules, 2012.

The committee will look into 25 mandatory criteria for issuing the fitness certificate. The 25 mandatory parameters include installation of emergency exit doors, fire extinguishers, speed governors to prevent rash driving, sticking of the schoolbus symbol, putting window grills on both sides, provisioning of racks for keeping school bags under the seats and installation of first-aid box. The officials will check whether the driver has at least five years experience. The credentials of the attendents will be checked.

On Thursday, RTOs of North, North West, South and South East will conduct the inspection.