Ethanol bus for Nagpur roads gets ARAI nod

NAGPUR: Despite finding some faults, the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) has given its nod to ply ethanol-run bus on Nagpur roads. The approval comes with a rider that the bus will run only after the faults are rectified.

An inspection carried out by ARAI at Khapri on Wednesday afternoon was just a formality to give nod to Union minister Nitin Gadkari's ambitious ethanol-run bus project. The ARAI team completed its formalities within half an hour even without driving the vehicle parked at the Khapri octroi post.

ARAI conducted the inspection after it received a letter from M/s Scania Commercial Vehicles India Pvt Ltd, Bangalore to examine and send the test report to verify whether the proposed bus fulfils the necessary condition of road worthiness and safety as prescribed in the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989, to the Union ministry of road transport and highways and Maharashtra government transport department.

TOI had earlier reported that the ministry of road transport and highways joint secretary Sanjay Bandopadhyaya had written a letter to Maharashtra transport secretary Shailesh Sharma to look into the matter.

As per norms, such inspection is done in the ARAI workshop in Pune and its takes a couple of days to fulfill the formalities. However, the ARAI representatives completed the inspection in 10 minutes. The ARAI did not even check whether the bus was in working condition.

Sources from transport commissioner's office in Mumbai told TOI that ARAI had given its green signal though it had found some glitches in the country's first ethanol-run bus and advised Scania representatives to rectify those faults in its future fleet. Representatives of the company also assured that in future buses they would be rectified.

ARAI inspection report of members PD Betgeri and MA Kulkarni sought the following rectifications

* Remove the seat in the passage of emergency door as it blocked its approach

* Correct the dimensions of emergency door from 1.14m to 1.25m

* Step provided at mother and child seat too did not match. As per ARAI's specifications, the step provided for mother and child seat should be 250mm, while in this bus it was 290mm

* Control for operating service door height from inside too was observed 590mm extra against the standard of 1,500mm

* Gangway at rearmost seat found 570mm less than the requirement of 600mm

* Rear destination board size observed 250mm against 900mm

* Power operated front service door to be enabled with sensor for object not to get trapped within door leaf

* Handhold for emergency door from outside of vehicle to be provided

* IS certified fire extinguishers of four kg each (minimum) to be provided at forward and rear half of vehicle

* Calculations for standee passenger area to be submitted