Kannauj mishap brings focus back on plying of illegal buses in UP

LUCKNOW:The Kannauj accident has yet again flagged the issue of rampant illegal bus operations in Uttar Pradesh—a chronic problem that not only endangers road safety but also eats into government’s revenue.

At least six persons died and three dozen people were injured when a speeding private doubledecker sleeper coach bus rammed into a stationary SUV from behind before turning turtle on the Lucknow-Agra expressway near Kannauj on Sunday.

The Delhi-bound private bus coming from Madhuvani in Bihar was found to be flouting the terms and conditions of the permit, apart from violating many other rules.

Sources said this was not an isolated case but thousands of private buses, ordinary and high-end, operated in this manner as a syndicate on various highways and expressways within UP and between UP and states like Delhi, Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh.

“While many of these buses have no permits at all to operate, most others including the luxury high-end buses like Volvos are chartered buses holding a contract carriage permit and transport passengers in violation of the terms and conditions of their permit,” transport department sources said.

A bus with a contract carriage permit carries passengers for hire or reward and is engaged under a contract for the use of such vehicle with the names of passengers mentioned and operates from one point to another

without stopping to pick up or set down passengers not included in the contract.

Buses covered with a contract carriage permit are chartered buses often hired for transporting tourists, wedding parties etc for a fixed amount.

“Any bus that takes passengers from and drops at different locations and charge fares from individual passengers accordingly either for the whole journey or for stages of the journey needs to have a stag carriage permit to ply,” sources explained.

The bus involved in the Kannauj bus accident on Sunday and Jaipur-bound private sleeper

coach that turned into a fireball after colluding with a truck also in Kannauj district in January this year were chartered buses but charged fare from passengers most of whom had got their ticket online.

“Working in an organised way private operators not only book tickets online but also have their own touts who openly wean away passengers from UPSRTC bus stations, including the Anand Vihar in Delhi and Alambagh in Lucknow by offering a lower fare to them,” sources said.

While minister of state for transport (independent charge)

Ashok Kataria was not available for his comment despite repeated efforts, commissioner, transport, Dheeraj Sahu said the problem of illegal bus operation did exist but said the department took action against all such operators. “We keep on taking action against unauthorised operations from time to time during special drives and otherwise also,” he said.

The issue of unauthorized bus operations, according to sources, has been discussed umpteen times at high level in all the regimes but the problem, they said, only continued to grow with the well-connected transporters’ syndicate.

“Then transport minister and now the state BJP chief Swatantra Deo Singh had openly said at a departmental meeting a year ago that he had information that 1,200 buses operate illegally between Delhi and Bihar via UP and asked officials to act. But nothing happened,” said a senior UP State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) official. He claimed that illegal bus operations caused at least 2 Rs two crore revenue loss to UPSRTC alone, leave alone loss to the state exchequer.

“Each of the private luxury buses operating between Lucknow and Delhi earns at least Rs 40-50 lakh per month and pays no tax to the government,” he said.

The transport department has sought a report on the Kannauj bus accident. “We have asked deputy transport commissioner, Kanpur Zone to submit a report .We will fix accountability depending on the report,” Sahu said.