MVD cancels fitness certificate of Kerala Blasters FC’s team bus

KOCHI:  The motor vehicle department has cancelled the fitness certificate of the official bus of Kerala Blasters after it failed to comply with the road safety norms. The department officials, who carried out a detailed inspection on Wednesday, found five major violations in the bus -- damaged tyres, damaged rear view mirrors, no medicine in the first aid box, vinyl wrapping of the body and giant pictures of the players on the glasses.

With this move, the Blasters will be forced to use another vehicle or they will need to rectify all violations spotted by the officials to transport the team. It is learnt that the department has given 14 days to resolve the issue and to present the vehicle for a fresh fitness certificate.

The department had on Saturday issued a show cause notice to the owner of the bus, which is covered fully in yellow and has giant pictures of the players. The MVD had also asked the team officials concerned to turn up before the RTO, but they failed to do so.

“We thought the contract carriage had flouted the norm by using the vinyl stickers on the body. But only after we conducted the inspection on Wednesday, we came to know that the tyres were worn out. There is no rear view mirror. Including these, we have identified over five violations,” said a motor vehicle official.
Though the Kerala Blasters’ officials had approached the MVD for approval to use vinyl stickers on the body of the bus, the department sat on the application.

Meanwhile, the High Court also directed the government to take stringent action against modified buses in the wake of the recent accident at Vadakkenchery in Palakkad. No Kerala Blasters’ official was available for comments.