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It is also improbable for a bus to start exploding just because it hit a culvert

I agree with this... 

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The accident involving a Volvo bus that charred 45 people to death (near Mahboobnagar), has brought into focus illegal operations of buses that have a contract carriage licence, but operate as stage carriers. - - Stage carriage buses are the only ones allowed to issue tickets to passengers. Contract carriages, on the other hand, are hired by one single group.

Although the city sees numerous such violations, the state transport department seems helpless in curbing the problem. A senior source in the ministry said, “There are numerous violations and the transport department is acting on it. However, this is difficult because of the lobbying involved.”

For the full report in the New Indian Express, click here.

One should think that was the reason for the accident.

Now, I travel quite often by these buses to Kochi - the regular operators being Kallada, Sharma, SB, KPN, Greyhound, etc. Generally, I take a bus at around 10 PM from Madiwala, and I am in the heart of Kochi by 6 next morning, after a fairly comfortable journey. The charge is around Rs 1200/-, and the entire process of booking the ticket, paying for it (all on-line), boarding the bus, etc are totally smooth (of course, it could be a lot better).

As compared to that, if I were to take a flight, it will entail a spend of a minimum of 6 hrs of your day time, in addition to a minimum of 5 times the bus fare. Getting a booking on a train, on short notice, is a near impossible task even through Tatkal.

But, there is a hitch. All of these operate as "Contract Carriage" services, governmed by the Contract Carriage Act (CCA). This means that they are in violation of the rules (under the Act), if they pick up a passenger from Electronic City, Hosur, Palghat, Trissur, or anywhere enroute, even if there are vacant seats; likewise too, if they drop off a passenger anywhere along the route.

During Diwali and such holiday times, when there is a huge rush (as in the instant Jabbar Travels case), the crew try to make a few extra bucks for themselves by accommodating stray passengers on temporary seating arrangements (generally along the aisle). While it does cause inconvenience to the regular passengers, and loss of income to the operator, in no way can it be seen as a safety issue. But, of course, it is a transgression of CCA.

Leaving aside all of that, the very meaning of "Contract Carriage" is like a marriage party, or a school/ college excursion group, entering into a contract with an operator to take the lot (whose names and other particulars have to be listed out), and nobody else, to the destination (and perhaps back). As such, issuing of tickets to individuals, etc, as is the current practise, is in itself a violation of the CCA.

All of the above means that none of the agencies are operating legally. The same applies to the SRS Travels, Satya Sai Travels, and various maxi-cab operations you come across in the city too. And, this is precisely the reason why reputed houses, like TVS (who started off as bus service providers in the city of Madurai), who would otherwise have very much liked to get back into this huge and ever growing business, are keeping their safe distance.

Now, everybody can see that there is a huge demand, and that the government can't possibly meet all of it by itself (even if it can, a monopoly can never be a good proposition). However, given the kind of restrictions (license - permit raaj) prevailing, it is only the Kallada, Sharma, Jabbar types, in the South, and Ponty Chaddha types in the North, who are prepared to "play" the current game. And, they being they, is why the services can't reach the professional levels of a Indigo or Go-Air of the airlines sector. All the same, I would still place my bets on a Kallada to travel to Kerala, a VRL to Mangalore/ Mumbai, and a KPN to Madurai, than the SRTC operations. The ones at the lower end however are generally bad, and theirs are the kind of (dis) services the detractors of privatisation love to cite and create phobia over.

The scenario being as plain and straight forward as that, one would expect of a responsible government to facilitate entry of reputed players into this vital infrastructure field. All that is needed is to amend the debilitating provisions in the CCA, or, better still, scrap the Act itself. It was possibly instituted with a view to maximising revenue. Whereas that approach may be OK for the tobacco or liquor sectors, it should never be so for infrastructure sectors, where you need more and more investments from good players.

And, once reputed private players come into the picture with their kinds of services, the citizens will be more than happy to leave their cars and bikes at their homes, and take to the buses for their commuting needs. And, with that, many of the city's traffic problems will get sorted out automatically, and without having to go for the extremely costly BRT and such options. Even the METRO need be thought of only when a city expands beyond say 7.5 million population.

A major problem is the low awareness levels amongst the public about these basic facts. But, more unfortunate is of the role of a few, who, though largely aware of all of these, but choose to stick on steadfastly to their dogma's by perpetuating a fear psychosis about private operators as a whole.

PS: The Mahboobnagar accident by itself was a minor one. But, what happened was the catching of the fire, and the spread of it (and smoke) far faster than the passengers could take action to exit. Volvo is studying what went wrong, and hopefully will effect design corrections accordingly.

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The compelling factor that goes against private bus operators is that no matter what permits they hold, they tend to misuse them to operate in the manner that suits them best to maximize revenues, even at the expense of passenger conveniences & safety.

So, according to you, private bus operators are and will remain thugs, whatever one may do. But, when it comes to airport development and operations (and other areas too), they are the ultimate (going by your own statements, cited below, from here).

Chennai's airport newly "modernized" & being operated by AAI is having all kinds of problems like roof leaking, repeated instances of false ceiling pieces falling off, baggage belt too steep, toilets dirty /stinking, unfriendly staff, long wait for baggage reclaim, etc. Compared to this, BIAL (& all other privately built or modernized airports that charge UDF) is a huge improvement & investments have to be recovered & running costs are high.

Now, I am wondering what if GVK, who are operating the BIAL and supposedly doing a good job of it (by your own reckoning), get into public bus transport services. Will they too turn bad boys? In both services? Or remain good in airport operations, and bad in bus operations? Just curious.

PS: I can't see the relevance of your citing travel experience from your college days. Whatever, that's clearly a case of overloading, and will not be accepted in today's world. Agencies like REDBUS, through whom you make bookings today, collect feedbacks from travellers, and provide ratings for the services. When I make a booking, either for myself or any of my family members (just last night, my 72 yr-old m-i-l left by SRS Travels sleeper, all by herself, to Karkala), I choose the service provider by the REDBUS ratings, which are fairly reliable. Those with poor ratings will eventually have to shut shop.

 

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K.V.Pathy

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JNNURM funded buses not allowed to enter Mangalore.

More here:

http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/report-jnnurm-funded-buses-not-allowed-in-mangalore-1924567

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