School buses to have speed limit of 40km/hour in city

NAGPUR: A third year engineering student was killed when he was hit by a speeding Montfort School bus on Wardha Road recently while in another mishap a speeding school bus of Centre Point School, Wardhaman Nagar, hit a road divider near LIT campus on Amravati Road.
Parents with school-going children can now breath easy as such mishaps will soon be a thing of past.From May 1, all commercial vehicles including school buses plying the city, will have to be fitted with speed-regulating devices, speed governors, which will limit their speeds to a maximum of 40km per hour, in corporation limit and 50km per hour outside city limits.
For new school buses, the requirement will come into effect from May 1, 2012, at the time of registration. While for the school buses already registered, the device will have to be fitted at the time of renewal of fitness certificate, or before August 1, 2012. For tempos and trucks, the speed limit has been kept mandatory at 40km per hour in city while 65km per hour outside city limits. The public transport buses will be covered in the second phase, while no decision had yet been taken on privately owned and used light motor vehicles (LMV)'s (cars, vans etc).
Deputy RTO, Vijay Chavhan said that state government has issued a notification in this regard on March 13, 2012, making it mandatory for all commercial vehicles to be fitted with the speed governor. Chavhan said, "Due to rash driving and speeding, hundreds of fatalities are reported on our roads every year. These speed governors will go a long way in ensuring that speed limits are not exceeded and will curb the rising rate of road accidents," he explained.
Nagpur RTO has called a special training session of deputy RTOs and assistant RTOs from all over Vidarbha along with RTA officials on April 25, to make them aware of the policy and state government guidelines about speed governors. The speed governor will be fitted by the operator of the vehicle, and sealed by the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) officials so that it cannot be removed or tampered with. A testing agency from Pune-Automotive Research Associates of India has also been appointed for the job while eight companies have been authorized to sell the equipments.
City RTO, Sarjerao Shelke said that initially we will ensure the device should be fitted in new school buses and all others by August 1, 2012. In next phase, tankers and dumpers will be fitted with the devise as state government has fixed its deadline till July 1 for new registration and July 1, 2013 for old vehicles. New transport and private service vehicles, excluding auto rickshaws and meter cabs, will have to get the speed governor fitted from September 1, 2012 at the time of registration, Shelke said.
Electronic meters in 28 new autos
Almost 28 auto rickshaw owners have installed electronic digital meters in their three-wheelers since March 1, 2012 - the day state government made it mandatory for all new auto rickshaws in state, Sarjerao Shelke said. While over 11,500 authorized auto rickshaws owners will have to install digital meter in their new three-wheelers from July 1, 2012 to July 1, 2013, he added.