Bus with 40 people catches fire in east Delhi, no casualties

A cluster bus with 40 passengers caught fire in Jagatpuri in east Delhi on Thurday morning. The passengers were safely rescued, police said, adding that the cause of the fire is suspected to be a short circuit in the air conditioner.
The police control room call received a call about the fire at 9.48am, said officers. When police reached the spot, it they found a blue cluster bus of route 340 which plies between Central Secretariat and Seemapuri parked on the roadside.
“The CNG bus was fully air conditioned. There were 40 passengers inside when it caught fire but a biker who was crossing the bus saw the flames and alerted the driver. The driver parked on the roadside and asked all passengers to step out. Eventually the fire spread to the entire bus,” a senior police officer said.
A fire official said that three fire tenders reached the spot immediately and extinguished the fire. “Preliminary investigation revealed that the probable cause of the fire was a short circuit in the air conditioning system,” the officer said.
Police said that the bus was four years old and its operations were being monitored and managed by DIMTS, a Delhi government partner organisation.
Transport minister Kailash Gahlot said an investigation into the cause of the fire will be carried out. “It is a cause of concern for us also that a four-year-old bus caught fire. The fire could be due to maintenance issues or a certain part that had to be changed was not changed. The Delhi government is not directly involved in the annual maintenance. All maintenance work is done by the operator. Delhi government does not have even 1% role in the maintenance of buses. We will take strict action against those found responsible for the lapses,” said Gahlot.