BENGALURU: 35 passengers of a Bangalore Metropolitan Transpor t Cor porat ion (BMTC) had a narrow escape when the bus which they were travelling in caught fire in front of SJP Polytechnic near KR Circle on Seshadri Road on Saturday afternoon. This is the third incident involving the BS4 midi BMTC buses since the last three months. The bus (route number 43B of depot number 20) was heading towards Vidyanagar from Majestic when the fire broke out. The visuals of the bus in flames and thick smoke have gone viral. None of the passengers were injured. The driver, who was reportedly the first to see the smoke inside the engine bonnet, alerted the conductor and the passengers and all of them hurriedly alighted the bus.
Within minutes the bus caught fire. Soon after the incident, the fire control room was informed and a fire tender from Seshadri Road was pressed into service. It may be recalled that on February 1, another BMTC in which 25 passengers were travelling in had caught fire near Nanda theatre. On January 21, another BMTC bus with 25 passengers caught fire near the Makkalakoota in Chamarajpet area. Immediately after the first two incidents, the BMTC had stopped the operation of all the 186 midi buses that were procured in 2014 by Ashok Leyland. There was a joint inspection carried out by the technical team of Ashok Leyland and the mechanical engineering division of the BMTC to check the fitness of these buses. The buses which were found to be fit were sent on route.
The BMTC has around 340 midi buses which are operated in the interior parts of the city on smaller roads. “The bus which caught fire on Saturday is also the same model as the buses involved in the two previous incidents. There is a problem with the design of the starter assembly. Suddenly there will be short circuit in the starter assembly which results in fire. After the first two cases, all midi buses were checked and those found to be fit were operated after the change in the faulty starters. The R&D team of Ashok Leyland will be inspecting on Monday and have been asked to rectify the issue. It is totally a design problem as the starters have been designed by the manufacturers”, said a BMTC official. The jurisdictional police have registered a case.