In the wake of the Sholapur bus tragedy which brought to light violations pertaining to the maintenance of passenger information by private bus operators, the Road Transport Authority conducted state-wide raids on Monday on private bus operators and their booking offices. Four joint transport commissioners, 18 Regional transport officers and 80 motor vehicle inspectors and assistance MVI’s conducted simultaneous raids in major cities of the states including Hyderabad, Tirupati, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and Ranga Reddy districts.
The officials seized several documents as well as computer data from the offices. Offices of 40 travel agencies and 30 booking offices were also raided in the city. Notices will soon be issued to a number of these private operators once the documents are inspected, said officials. “Eight special teams headed by the RTA were formed for the raids which were mainly for inspecting passenger information records and the agents’ licenses. Apart from other cities in the state, raids were conducted at Lakdi-ka-Pul, Ameerpet, S.R. Nagar, Kukatpally, Paradise, Kachiguda, Nampally and Afzalgunj areas in the twin cities,” said joint transport commissioner G. Panduranga Rao.
As per AP Motor Vehicles Rules and the Central Motor Vehicles Act, it is mandatory for any travel agency, agent or booking office to obtain a contract carriage permit. According to officials, there are about 1100 buses with contract carrier permits in the state and more than 500 of these operate from Hyderabad and Secunderabad. However, many buses registered in Karnataka were also being operated from the twin cities, said the officials.