Nagpur: In the wake of frequent incidents of Aapli buses catching fire, the Nagpur City Regional Transport Office (RTO) on Wednesday deputed an investigator to probe the recent fire in a moving bus carrying 35 passengers on the Sitabuldi-Khaperkheda route.
According to sources, the investigator will inspect the damaged standard bus to find out the exact cause of the fire. If any negligence is found on the part of the operator, the RTO will take strict action against them, the sources said.
Notably, one of the premier engineering institutes in the city had inspected the bus and said the fire was caused due to a short circuit of electric wires. It had suggested NMC direct all three Red bus operators to replace all the electric cables of all 167 standard buses. It is learnt that the New Delhi-based Aapli Bus operator RK City had ignored maintenance of the ill-fated bus. The bus crew too had alerted the Depot Manager about the required maintenance, which went unheard, said a NMC’s Transport Department source. This was the third fire that broke out in an Aapli bus in the last two months.
After the second incident in the last week of March, NMC’s Fire and Emergency Services Department had alerted NMC’s Transport Department to monitor upkeep of Aapli bus fleet. Sources also pointed out that the Fire Department lacks expertise to study the cause of the fire. It has hardly investigated any fire incident to find out the cause. The Fire Department suspected that all three fire mishaps occurred due to short circuit in electric cables passing through engines, as all fires started from the engine.
