New Delhi: A low-floor DTC bus caught fire in south-west Delhi, the seventh such incident in the national
capital in less than a month.
The bus, bound to Uttam Nagar, caught fire Saturday night but
no one was injured, fire officials said.
The driver suddenly stopped the bus after noticing smoke
billowing out in the rear end of the vehicle and safely
evacuated its passengers through the front exit.
This is the seventh incident in the past three weeks that
a bus running on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) has caught fire.
The Delhi government has instituted an inquiry into the
incidents.
The government has also imposed a hefty fine of Rs 4
crores on Tata Motors for "not properly" maintaining the
low-floor buses manufactured by it. The government has also
decided to withhold a payment of Rs 150 crore to the Tatas and
warned of legal action if corrective steps were not taken by
the automobile giant.
As per the contract, Tata Motors is responsible for
maintenance of the bus fleet supplied by it. Tata Motors has
so far provided nearly 800 low-floor buses to the city
government.
However, Tata Motors has cited bad road conditions as the
reason for the mishaps.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, December 20, 2009, 11:43