Around 100 school vehicles deemed unfit in Ranipet, Tiruvannamalai

 TIRUVANNAMALAI

Nearly a hundred school vehicles, including vans and buses, in Ranipet and Tiruvannamalai education districts have been deemed unfit and need to undergo repairs to make them eligible for the transportation of school students this academic year.

A two-day assessment was carried out based on a joint inspection involving senior officials such as Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO), Deputy SP, Chief Educational Officer (CEO) and Regional Transport Officer (RTO). The inspection, which concluded on Sunday, involved the checking of 21 parameters, including the height of the footboard, strength of the floor, fire extinguisher, first aid kit, speed governor, driver’s cabin, seats, bag racks, windows, window grill and emergency exits. “We have given the owners of the unfit vehicles time to repair them. Till then, these vehicles cannot be used,” A. Kumara, RTO (Tiruvannamalai), told The Hindu.

The transport officials have pasted the ‘OK’ sticker on buses that passed the inspection. Tiruvannamalai comprises three RTOs - Tiruvannamalai town (585 vehicles), Arani (316 vehicles) and Cheyyar (218 vehicles) - with a total of 1,119 school vehicles in the district. Tiruvannamalai Collector B. Murugesh supervised the inspection of school vehicles. Of the 439 vehicles that were subjected to a fitness test, 47 were deemed unfit in Tiruvannamalai town. Inspection of school vehicles in Arani and Cheyyar will be done next week, officials said.   The newly formed Ranipet district has two RTOs - Ranipet and Arakkonam - with 275 and 150 vehicles, respectively. Major towns like Arcot, Walajah, Sholinghur and Thimiri come under the Ranipet RTO, whereas Arakkonam RTO has Arakkonam town and Nemili. At the end of the inspection on Sunday, 38 school vehicles in these two RTOs were declared unfit. The inspection in Ranipet was monitored by Collector D. Bhaskara Pandian.   Officials said the tightening of rules, especially for school vehicles, became a norm after the passage of the Tamil Nadu Motor Vehicles (Regulation and Control of School Buses) Special Rules, 2012, which mandates officials to inspect the school vehicles every year.