In a move to make the inter-state private bus services safer, the Kerala government has come up with a slew of measures to rein in the operators. This comes days after the staff of a private traveller in Kerala were caught on video beating up three passengers and forcing them out of the bus.
The Kerala government has announced that GPS devices and speed governors (a device to control the speed of a vehicle) will be made mandatory in all the private buses that ply on inter-state routes.
"From June 1 onwards, GPS has been made mandatory in all inter-state buses that conduct services in Kerala," Minister for Transport AK Saseendran stated in a press meet in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday.
The minister has also said that the government has received complaints of buses overcharging customers.
“The government will ask Justice Ramachandran Commission to study and submit a report on the fares of contract carriages and the transportation of goods in the buses will be strictly prevented. For this, the assistance of the police and the Income Tax Department will be sought,” he added.
The minister added that the services of the private agencies, that have LAPT (Licensing for Agents for Passengers Ticketing), will be monitored and if need be, the licences of erring companies will be taken away.
“The functioning of these agencies is being scrutinized and it has been found that 46 among them are functioning without a license. Action will be taken to close down the agencies if they don’t submit required documents in a week. Criteria will be laid down for issuing license to these companies,” he said.
The minister has also said that directions have been issued not to cancel the inter-state services of Kerala RTC for frivolous reasons.
The Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) on Wednesday had launched 'Operation Night Riders' to monitor the services of private bus operators to make them transparent.
"A discussion will be held at the Secretary level for operating more inter-state buses. Transport Secretary R Jyothilal has held discussions with the chairman of Railways for conducting more train services on the Kerala-Bengaluru route. As many as 259 cases have been registered in Operation Night Riders and a fine of Rs 3.74 lakh has been imposed. Checks have been conducted at 19 check posts and three inter-state buses have been found to be transporting goods,” he further said.
The measures come days after three men travelling from Haripad in Alappuzha district to Bengaluru in the wee hours of Sunday (April 21) were brutally assaulted by the staff members of Kallada Travels, a private bus agency that has also been plying buses to other states. A video of the assault shared by another passenger went viral and has sent shockwaves and raised concerns about the safety of passengers who depend upon private bus operators for their commute to other states.