Autos ferrying school children to get safer

Autos ferrying school children to get safer

Your child’s travel to school in autorickshaws is likely to get safer soon. The transport department has developed a prototype of a unique “school rickshaw” with several safety features, similar to those mandated in the school bus policy. This is part of the department’s efforts to bring autorickshaws under the ambit of the new school bus policy brought in force in 2011. Around 30,000 students travel in autorickshaws in Mumbai. The department has sought to modify the definition of a school bus in the policy to include three-wheelers, especially big autorickshaws which can seat around 10 students. The proposal to modify the policy has been sent to the government. In the present policy norms, a vehicle has to have at least 12 seating capacity to qualify as a school bus. State transport commissioner VN More confirmed the department’s plans to modify the school bus policy. “The idea is to ensure that the commute of schoolchildren travelling in three-wheelers is safe. Presently, the policy does not recognise three-wheelers with safety features as vehicles to ferry children to school,” he said. The commissioner said it would either require chalking out a separate set of safety norms or leaving it to the discretion of the transport commissioner’s office. Policy maker and bus owners are not happy about the move. President of the School Bus Owners Association, Anil Garg, said, “This is encouraging the vehicle manufacturers’ lobby. What is the point of having a school bus policy if autorickshaws are also going to be allowed to ply schoolchildren? Rickshaws will only worsen the traffic. We oppose the move unequivocally.” Policy maker Indrani Malkani, who designed the existing school bus policy, said: “The prototype can seat only seven to eight children not older than 8 years. There is hardly any space for a fire extinguisher. Such vehicles should not ply on city roads because they will only add to the congestion.”