Transport dept to enforce nat'l body building code for buses

The state Transport department will strictly enforce national body building code to set up structures of buses as part of Safe Drive Save Life mission to avoid road accidents.

Alapan Bandyopadhyay, Principal Secretary, Transport department, said the coach builders will have to streamline their system and comply with the body building code. "Faulty body of buses is one of the major causes of accident," he maintained. More than 1.5 lakh people die in road accidents in the country every year. To reduce the number of road accidents, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had launched Safe Drive Save Life programme and in every administrative review meeting she has sought strict enforcement of the programme.

It may be mentioned that the Transport department has so far given Rs 45 crore to the city and state police under Safe Drive Save Life project. The transport units throughout the state will be entrusted to ensure that the coaches have been built as per norms.

Coach building is a major industry in East and West Midnapore with most of the units situated in Tamluk and Haldia in East Midnapore and Belda and Garbeta in West Midnapore. There are several coach building factories in East Burdwan.

Bus owners buy chassis and then these units make the coaches for both luxury carriers and ordinary buses. Luxury buses with long chassis called "Local Volvo" in the district parlance which are cheap imitations of the original Volvo Land Cruiser buses are found in the national and state highways. Stress will also be given on the comfort of the passengers. In many cases due to the coaches not being built as per specifications, the passengers find it difficult to stretch their legs and travelling in such buses becomes a major problem. Sanjay Ghosh, a vintage car connoisseur and restorer said as the coaches have not been built following the body building code, there is improper centre of gravity and during panic braking or at sharp turns they have a tendency to overturn.