Union Minister Nitin Gadkari Implements Bus Body Construction Standards for Passenger Safety

With the rising number of bus accidents, there is an urgent need to improve the quality of bus body construction in Bharat.

Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport and Highways, announced that he approved norms for bus body construction that will be uniformly applied to OEMs and bus body builders. The minister also stated that the Ministry is asking for feedback on the draft notification for these criteria.

On Twitter, he tweets, "With the rising number of bus accidents, there is an urgent need to improve the quality of bus body construction in Bharat. This step will pave the path for additional improvements in bus quality in India, with a major focus on passenger safety during emergencies."

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Gadkari hoped that all parties would support the initiative to maintain the safety of all bus passengers.

According to the most recent NCRB study, issued in 2022, buses were responsible for approximately 3% of all accidents in India. Uttar Pradesh recorded 28.9% (1,337 out of 4,622) and Tamil Nadu reported 11.9% (551 out of 4,622) of total fatal road accidents caused by buses.

A number of bus accidents have recently occurred along the newly opened Mumbai Nagpur Maha Samruddhi Express. The major one occurred in July, when a bus caught fire, killing 25 people and injuring eight more.