Noida: Thirty-two passengers had a narrow escape on Tuesday evening when their sleeper AC bus burst into flames on Noida Expressway, barely two weeks after nine passengers were killed in a similar blaze in a sleeper vehicle on Yamuna Expressway.The way the drivers of both buses treated the sudden blaze made all the difference. On Tuesday evening, the driver of BSS Cool Cool, operated by Jamna Travels and bearing the registration BR28P-3433, smelt something burning, saw smoke coming out of the dashboard and stopped before the flames could trap those inside.On Sept 23, the driver and attendant of the bus headed for Mahoba in UP turned a deaf ear to repeated warnings from passengers about a strong acrid smell and continued to drive on Yamuna Expressway. By the time they stopped, flames had gripped the AC vehicle, trapping 35 passengers in the narrow aisle. Nine passengers burnt to death while the driver and attendant ran away.Around 4pm on Tuesday, BSS Cool Cool left Delhi’s Red Fort for Muzaffarpur. An hour and half later, as the bus reached Sector 48 near Knowledge Park, the driver noticed an acrid smell and smoke emerging from the front portion. Suspecting a mechanical fault, he pulled over and began evacuating passengers along with the conductor.All 32 passengers got off within five to seven minutes. Flames then raced through the bus, engulfing it and shattering the windows. Five fire tenders fought the blaze for nearly an hour. The passengers, including traders and workers carrying festive purchases, clothes and cash worth lakhs, watched their belongings burn to ash.Chief fire officer Pradeep Kumar Chaubey said the blaze appeared to have started near the engine, though its exact cause was yet to be ascertained. DCP (traffic) Praveen Ranjan and ADCP Abhay Kumar Mishra also inspected the spot. Passengers were later provided alternative arrangements to continue to their destination in Bihar.The contrast with the Sept 23 tragedy could hardly be starker. The Raj Kalpana sleeper bus, carrying 35 passengers from Kashmere Gate in Delhi, caught fire near the 33km milestone of Yamuna Expressway. Passengers had repeatedly complained about a burning smell coming from the cabin and asked the driver and attendant to stop. But they continued driving and smoking bidis and cigarettes, dismissing the smell as common.The two fires exposed the same frightening vulnerability of sleeper buses. Once flames take hold inside an enclosed passenger compartment, escape can become a race against time. In the latest case, an early stop gave passengers those precious minutes.Questions over bus safety had already intensified after the Sept 23 deaths. Checks by TOI found jammed emergency exits, inaccessible or locked fire extinguishers and first-aid boxes, and interiors using combustible wood panels in some buses.Retrofitting added another layer of risk. Buses approved in a 2×1 sleeper layout for about 36 berths were sometimes found converted to 2×2 layouts after fitness and RTO clearances, increasing capacity to 48. The extra berths ate into aisle space and reduced berth dimensions, making evacuation harder.Experts told TOI that such modifications, including added AC units and electrical loads, must be properly engineered, inspected and certified because they alter the vehicle’s original safety configuration.Traffic authorities had launched Operation Kavach 2.0 after the fatal fire, seizing 39 buses for safety violations and subjecting them to technical checks against AIS-119 norms.
