Poor state of buses

PUTTING the lives of Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) employees and lakhs of passengers in jeopardy, a whopping 84 public transport buses plying in Mandi, Kullu and Lahaul & Spiti continue to run even after having outrun their lifespan of clocking 8.5 lakh km. Underscoring the general laxity is the shocker that not a single new bus has been added to the fleet in the Keylong depot since 2017. Rather, crores of rupees were feared to have gone down the drain a few years ago when over 200 new buses allocated to the Road Transport Corporation under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission by the Centre were sitting idle in Kangra for purported lack of drivers or the buses being too long for plying on the winding and narrow hill roads.

Further endangering the commuters — that comprise large numbers of students, middle-class workers and tourists — is the poor upkeep of the vehicles. A rickety, ramshackle bus with a broken seat or a jammed windowpane is a bane. Technical glitches causing the vehicles to break down hit the passengers’ business of the day. Coupled with the chronic shortage of technical and other staff in the HRTC, the resultant hazardous mix is potent enough to accelerate the accident-proneness of the old buses. This is evident from the state’s high rate of road casualties: on an average, around 1,200 persons die in nearly 3,000 accidents each year. While fingers are commonly pointed at overspeeding, drunk driving and wrong overtaking, Himachal Pradesh would do well to equally pay heed to ensuring preventive maintenance of the buses and curb accidents.

The state of affairs is no better in the adjoining plains. That PRTC (Punjab) buses are involved in 115 accidents on an average every year reflects poorly on the corporation. The recent crash near Kurali in Punjab involving a rashly driven Haryana Roadways bus that claimed three lives was preventable if the GPS-based tracking system installed on the bus had been properly working and monitored for overspeeding. Women are being wooed by these states with free or concessional bus travel. Make the travel safer, too.