Pune: MSRTC’s Shivshahi bus catches fire after passengers get down

PUNE: A fire broke out in the engine of a “Shivshahi” bus plying from Yavatmal to the city at the Shastrinagar Chowk in Yerawada on the Pune-Ahmednagar highway around 11.30am on Tuesday, minutes after its staffers told the passengers to get down suspecting something wrong in the vehicle.
“There were 42 passengers on board. The driver and the conductor of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) bus told them to get down at the Kharadi stop,” senior inspector Balkrushna Kadam of the Yerawada police said.
The station duty fire officer, Subhas Jadhav, said, “The fire broke out in the engine compartment of the bus and we received an emergency call at 11.30pm. Three fire tenders extinguished the flames in 15 minutes. The entire bus was damaged.”
Kadam said, “We have recorded the driver’s statement. He told us that the bus reached Aurangabad without any trouble. Thereafter, on the way to Pune, its engine started heating up. He took several halts on the road to cool the engine. He spotted smoke in his cabin when the bus reached Kharadi and asked all passengers to get down. The bus continued its onward journey to Shivajinagar depot, but when it reached Shastrinagar, the bus caught fire. Only the driver and the conductor were in the bus then.”
Dyaneshwar Ranavare, the MSRTC’s Pune division traffic manager, told TOI, “The Shivshahi bus belonged to the MSRTC. The driver of the bus felt that the front side was rapidly heating up.”
An MSRTC officer said the cause of the fire was being ascertained and a short-circuit could have triggered it.
There are 1,500 Shivshahi buses with the MSRTC. Of them, 1,000 belong to MSRTC. Private contractors operate the rest. “We are taking several steps to ensure regular maintenance of the buses,” another MSRTC official said.