THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Continuing its crackdown on erring long distance private carriages following the Kallada fiasco, the state government on Saturday issued a set of conditions that needs to be followed to obtain a licence to run such services.
The Motor Vehicle Department has also been instructed to follow these conditions stringently while renewing or issuing Licence Agent For Public Transport (LAPT).
As per the new condition, booking offices should have a minimum of 150 sq ft area. The room must seat at least 10 people, have toilet, drinking water, cloakroom with locker facility and CCTV system with six-month backup.
Enroute, the bus should stop at every 50 km at a place with refreshment and toilet facilities. Tickets should have details including the vehicle number, telephone numbers of staff and customer care and helpline numbers.
The service providers must ensure a boarding place without disturbing other vehicles or passengers and they should also have the facility to accommodate three big passenger vehicles within 5 km of the booking office.
The circular issued on Saturday said no booking office should function within 500 metres KSRTC bus stands. The RTO, Kerala Police and Women helpline numbers should be displayed in the office along with LAPT.
The name of the booking office and the licence should be visibly displayed outside the office. The phone number of the bus operators along with their names should be displayed for the passengers along with the time of the various services.
The location of the vehicles should be shared digitally. Before starting the trip, the phone number of the bus staff should also be shared.
As per the new guideline, the owner of the bus service should submit a three-month return with the RTA secretary. The data of the passengers should be saved in a specific format and the list should be kept for at least a year.
No illegal substances or materials should be transported in the vehicles. The licence holder or the operator should have the facility to provide another vehicle if one of the vehicles breaks down on the way. The licence holder should be above the age of 18 and should have a police clearance certificate.