A special Kerala State Road Transport Corporation bus — part of the Kerala State RTC-SWIFT project for operating long-distance buses for the next 10 years — met with an accident just a few hours after being flagged off on Monday, April 11. The bus service was inaugurated by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
Soon after the SWIFT bus was flagged off in Thiruvananthapuram, it had a brush with a lorry at Kallambalam. The brand-new bus suffered damages including smashed side mirrors and damages to the front portion of the vehicle. Service resumed after some time, reportedly after the mirrors were fixed at a nearby garage.
However, the Managing Director of the Kerala State RTC, Biju Prabhakar, has alleged foul play in the accident. He said that though it was minor, “external forces” may have been behind the accident. For this reason, he has sought a probe into the accident. "New Kerala State RTC buses have met with accidents in the past as well. We need to examine whether a private lobby is behind this,” he is quoted as saying by OnManorama.
The Kerala State RTC is one of the biggest employers in the state government with over 35,000 employees and an equal number of pensioners. The Kerala State RTC operates around 5,000 buses, and has around 5100 schedules. The buses on an average run 1.6 million kilometres every day.
While flagging off the K-SWIFT bus on Monday, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the Kerala State RTC, which has been facing huge losses lately, is “slowly moving towards a brighter future”. Vijayan also said that the state government would extend all the support to lead the Kerala State RTC to its prosperity and it was important for everyone to extend their full support for this cause.
(With IANS inputs)