Nitin Gadkari, the Minister of Road, Transport and Highways said that he has approved standards for the construction of bus bodies, which will be uniformly applicable to OEMs and bus body builders.
Taking to Twitter, he said, “In the wake of rising number of bus accidents, there is a pressing need to enhance the quality of bus body construction in Bharat. This step will pave the way for further improvements in the quality of buses in India, with a primary focus on ensuring passenger safety during contingency.”
The minister further added that the draft notification for these standards is being published by the Ministry to solicit suggestions.
As per the latest NCRB report published in 2022, about 3% of all accidents in India were due to buses. 28.9% (1,337 out of 4,622) and 11.9% (551 out of 4,622) of total
fatal road accidents due to buses were reported in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu respectively.
Recently, a spate of accidents involving buses have been reported along the newly opened Mumbai Nagpur Maha Samruddhi Express. The most prominent one among them happened in July wherein 25 passengers died and eight others were injured when the bus caught fire.