Contract buses return today, to have windows with ‘50% visibility’

Contract carriage buses, which had gone off Delhi roads on Monday, will start plying again from Wednesday. The Delhi Contract Bus Association said that they had met with the Delhi Chief Secretary on Tuesday, and were working out solutions to problems related to Transport department's ban on tinted glass in buses.

The association is also expected to meet with senior officials of the Transport department and traffic police on Wednesday, to sort out this matter and discuss issuance of public service vehicle (PSV) badges to drivers of public transport.

"We met with the Chief Secretary to discuss issues related to tinted glass and it was decided that the front and rear glass should have 70 per cent visibility and other windows should have 50 per cent visibility. Most public transport drivers do not have valid PSV badges as they are not from Delhi. A solution is being sought so that they can be issued PSV badges by Transport department. The drivers will also be issued identity cards by Delhi government. We will be meeting with officials from Transport department and traffic police on Wednesday, for further discussion," Amarjeet Sehgal, president of Delhi Contract Bus Association, said.

Contract carriage buses had discontinued services on Monday, affecting schools using these buses to pick up and drop students. The Transport department has issued a public notice clarifying that non-compliance of orders regarding removal of tinted glass and curtains and refusing to provide buses to schools would lead to cancellation of permits. It had said such buses would not be granted permits under any category in the future.

"We have asked owners of contract carriage buses to provide buses to schools as per existing agreement to avoid cancellation of permits," a Transport official said.

The notice says: "Certain directions were issued by the State Transport Authority (STA) regarding removal of curtains and tinted glass/films from all the public service vehicles. Though compliance with such instructions would not have taken more than a few hours, it has come to notice that few owners of contract carriage buses have refused to provide buses to schools on the pleas that removal of curtains and tinted films would take time. Government of NCT of Delhi has taken a very serious view of this conduct as an attempt to defy orders of STA and putting schoolchildren to inconvenience in cold conditions."

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