EV PowerPlus, Volvos to travel at 80 kmph; Sarige red bus speed limit is 65 kmph
Mysore/Mysuru: With a KSRTC EV PowerPlus bus destroyed in a recent accident allegedly owing to overspeeding on the Mysuru-Bengaluru Expressway near Ramanagara killing the conductor and injuring 25 passengers, the KSRTC (Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation) bosses have made speed governors mandatory — to restrict the speeds to a certain limit. These speed governors will be pre-set for the maximum speed conforming to road standards.
The Road Transport Corporation has started the process of installing speed governors on buses plying between Mysuru and Bengaluru on all categories of buses. Sources said that each EV PowerPlus bus costs about Rs. 2 crore and the loss of one bus has dented the revenues and at the same time heightened safety concerns among passengers on this popular segment.
The bus, owned by KSRTC’s Central Depot in Bengaluru, which was coming from Madikeri to Bengaluru, collided with a goods vehicle carrying plywood sheets. One of the tyres of the goods vehicle burst and veered to the left while the KSRTC bus was trying to overtake.
The speeding bus then surpassed the median, crossed into the opposite lane before finally coming to a halt in an empty paddy field, having travelled approximately 100 metres. The horrible accident put pressure on the KSRTC to adopt speed governors, a policy that was pending in Karnataka since 2013.
65 to 80 kmph
Speaking to Star of Mysore this morning, KSRTC Divisional Controller (Rural) Srinivas said that speed governors have been made mandatory on all KSRTC buses travelling on the Expressway. “As it is possible to cover the distance between the two cities within two hours instead of the earlier three-and-a-half-hours, we have limited the speed of EV PowerPlus to 80 kmph,” he said.
“Earlier, the EV PowerPlus, Volvo and Scania buses could travel 120 kmph but now they can only travel 80 kmph, despite acceleration. The speed of ordinary Sarige vehicles have been limited to 65 kmph. There is no way drivers can go beyond the prescribed speed,” he added.
Reports of tampering
Though traffic experts say that a vehicle fitted with a speed governor cannot exceed the prescribed limit, in the past, there were several cases in KSRTC where bus drivers were found tampering with speed governors. Reportedly, some drivers working with KSRTC, NWKRTC and NEKRTC made the instrument inactive when they took the bus out from the depot and reactivated it while returning.
If these speed governors are fitted by KSRTC mechanics just below the accelerator, it is possible to modify them. If bus manufacturing companies put inbuilt speed governors, it is not possible to meddle around with them, mechanics said.
More passengers travel
In response to the Shakthi free bus travel scheme, Srinivas said that prior to the scheme, the average daily passenger travel in the Mysuru division stood at 4,05,000 passengers. But after the scheme was launched, the Mysuru division is seeing a daily footfall of 4,65,000 passengers, he added.
“Yes, there is a bit of overloading where there are over 75 to 80 passengers in a bus while the actual seating capacity is 54. There are 1,071 buses in the KSRTC Mysuru rural division and we have asked 120 more buses to meet the demand. In addition, we have 100 Volvos and 8 EV PowerPlus buses,” Srinivas said.
This post was published on July 4, 2023 7:45 pm