HYDERABAD: The pressure to clock a certain number of trips and reach the end point within a stipulated time is possibly adding to the stress and aggression of those who man the wheels of the RTC buses, say experts after the recent rise in accidents in the city.
Sources say that RTC bus drivers are mandated to complete a stipulated number of rides between the start and end points within their shift. Not only this, each trip is also timed and the bus drivers are not offered any leniency on maintaining the time. “If a driver has to clock a trip from Patancheru to Koti, he is given exactly 2 hours to do it. Now practically, during a rainy day or during the heavy traffic hours, it is extremely difficult to achieve those targets,” said a senior bus driver with over 10 years of experience, adding how many drivers end up getting notices and charge sheets for not clocking their time.
“This is adding to the stress levels and forcing them to drive faster and aggressively. It is not as if the RTC bus drivers do not understand the value of life, but there are just some very taxing rules put in place for them apart from the many road engineering issues,” added Vinod Kumar K, Chief Functionary Officer of Indian Federation of Road Safety.
Adding to this, he says that bus bays must be added to road engineering. “There are practically only around 3-4 bus bays at Abids, Khairatabad and AC guards, which has made commuting easy for the passengers. We need to build more of these in a big city like Hyderabad and eliminate the bus stops built on footpaths,” he added. The accident that occurred at Gachibowli took place near a bus stop built on the footpath. It has now been removed.
Gachibowli accident: ‘Erring’ driver gets bail
The driver behind the wheel of Koti-bound RTC bus that mowed down three people at the Gachibowli crossroads on Monday, has been granted bail. After surrendering to the police, the driver had maintained that it was the faulty brakes in the bus that had caused the accident. The police, however, after taking into account the eye witnesses versions, found that he was over-speeding and registered cases against him.