Third low-floor bus fire in two days

Around 60 passengers were in the bus,which was plying on the Outer Mudrika route. “All of them were evacuated safely,” said a police officer. Two fire tenders rushed to the spot and doused the blaze.

This is the sixth incident in the past 18 days,in which a bus running on CNG has caught fire. On Saturday,blocking of tyres had caused a similar incident in Akshardham.

Amid rising concerns about passenger safety,Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit Delhi said she has called a high-level review meeting on Monday to discuss the spate of mishaps. The meeting will be attended by officials of Delhi Transport Corporation and representatives of the manufacturer,Tata Motors.

The government had earlier warned Tata Motors of strong action if the company did not improve the maintenance of the buses. Transport minister Arvinder Singh Lovely had said the government was “very serious” about the problem and may consider cancelling the company’s contract to supply the buses.

As per the terms of the contract,the Tata Motors,which has provided about 800 low-floor buses to the Delhi government,is responsible for maintenance of the fleet.

The Delhi government has begun an inquiry into Saturday’s mishap and is probing the earlier accidents too.

Both DTC and Tata Motors have been pulled up by the Environment pollution Control Authority,appointed by the Supreme Court,for lack of supervision and laxity in maintenance of the buses.

Among the recent incidents of fire in low-floor buses,this is the third incident in which jammed rear tyres have caused a blaze.

Prior to today’s incident,a low-floor bus breakdown near the Akshardham flyover was also the result of jammed rear tyres.

As per the DTC report on the fire that occurred in a low-floor bus on December 3,the rear left tyre of the bus was jammed because of a faulty brake liner. The friction led to sparks that fell on the bus engine and later turned into a blaze.