BENGALURU: A bus recently inducted into the KSRTC fleet caught fire on the outskirts of Bengaluru and a woman died of burns even as she tried to get off the bus. Ten others were injured, one of them seriously.
The woman has been identified as Bhagyamma (52), a resident of Peenya. The other injured passengers are receiving treatment at the Victoria Hospital in Bengaluru. The seriously injured person was named as Mamatha
Officials of KSRTC, a state transporter, said they had no clue to the cause of the fire. One official said the bus was a new one. They, however, ruled out a short circuit or a tyre burst as the reason.
The bus was returning to Bengaluru from Sringeri when it caught fire near Nelamangala, some 30 km from the city, at about 12.25 am Monday.
According to Karnataka transport minister Ramalinga Reddy, eyewitnesses reported noticing the fire first in a gunny bag of coconuts.
"Our officials have checked. There was no problem with the engine and no short circuit was reported. It's a non AC bus," he said.
Another official said it the engine and tyres.were in a good condition. "We suspect some inflammable things were being transported by a passenger," he said.
The postmortem of Bhagyamma was conducted at the Nelamangala government hospital and her body was to be brought to her residence at Peenya Dasarahalli at 4 pm.
The Nelamangala traffic police have detained the bus driver Dinesh and the conductor Renuka Prasad on charges of negligence. The two are being questioned about the items loaded on the bus.
KSRTC officials said the family of the victim would be paid Rs 3 lakh as a relief payment. Rs 2 lakhs of this will come from the chief minister’s relief fund.