Pvt bus passengers data now online

• Private operators have to upload the details on the RTA website
• This is important in the event of accidents; Crackdown on violators

The Transport Department has developed a software wherein the list of passengers travelling by private buses and their drivers, would be available on the department’s website. The move comes in the wake of October’s bus tragedy at Palem in Mahabubnagar district, which claimed over 40 lives. However, initially this move would be pertained to contract carriers.

The transport department has decided to rein in private bus operators, contract carriers in particular. The department has developed a software so that the list of travelling passengers would be available online in the transport department’s website.

The officials have made it mandatory for private travel operators to enter every detail of the passengers online and violators would be slapped with fines. The transport department officials have threatened to cancel the permits of operators violating the rule.

Post the bus accident at Palem in October 2013, the transport authorities have been cracking down on private bus operators who have been flouting the norms. Reportedly 600 cases were registered against private bus operators in the city. The transport department also cancelled the permits of the operators on a few routes.

The officials state that there are around 200 private buses in the city that operate as contract carriers and most of them openly flout all the rules and norms.

Who are contract carriers?

Any private bus that carries only members of a group is called as contract carrier. According to the AP Motor Vehicle Rules, the operator has to submit a list of all the details of passengers to the Road Transport Authority (RTA) office. However, reports suggest that not all the operators submit and maintain the list.

In the Palem bus accident, the authorities had a difficult time trying to pass on information on victims to their families as the bus operator did not maintain the details of all the passengers. It was only after the kin of victims thronged the bus operator’s office at Lakdi-ka-pul, that the authorities could gather the necessary information.

“There is complacency on the part of private bus operators. In most cases they do not maintain the names, addresses and phone numbers. Now, all this has to stop. They have to upload the details in the website. Violators will have to face consequences,” said Raghunadha Rao, joint transport commissioner.