Published On : Sat, Jun 25th, 2022

Kids at risk: 62% school buses in Nagpur found without fitness certificates

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Nagpur: This fact is worrisome for parents of school-going children. Of the school buses operating in Nagpur city and rural areas, 1,098 buses have been found running without mandatory fitness certificates. It means 62% of school buses are in violation of the fitness rule, according to a report in local media.

According to rules, it is mandatory for school buses to have fitness certificates to avoid accidents, technical breakdowns and to make students’ travel safe. As the schools have reopened after a long Covid-induced break, roughly 40% students use school buses, 30% opt for school vans and 10% rely on autos for going to school.

In order to ensure the safety of students, many rules have been framed for vehicles used for transport of children.

The rules include colour of school buses, seating capacity and speed limit. As per the orders of the court and directives of Regional Transport Office (RTO), vehicles used for transporting students must go for annual inspection.

According to the report, the RTO had issued notices regarding the annual inspection during summer holidays. But a majority of operators seem to have ignored the notices. School buses are required to obtain a fitness certificate once a year.

The condition of the vehicle, brakes, lights, permit, ability of driver, whether any offences have been registered against the owner and driver, whether any punishment has been imposed for non-compliance of traffic rules etc are checked during inspection.

A fitness certificate is issued only after checking all these parameters. It is mandatory to get it within the deadline.

East RTO worst:
There are 2,886 school buses registered with three RTOs of Nagpur city. Most – 1419 – are registered with the Rural RTO. Of these, 375 don’t have fitness certificates.

There are 1,024 school buses registered with East RTO and 712 of them don’t have fitness certificates. Similarly, there are 443 school buses registered with City RTO and only 11 of them don’t have fitness certificates.