Bus involved in Vellore mishap to lose permit

CHENNAI: Nine days after the ill-fated KPN Travels luxury bus met with a gruesome accident near Vellore, in which 22 passengers were charred to death, the Tamil Nadu transport department on Wednesday requested their counterparts in Puducherry to cancel the permit of the bus.“A senior transport official called us today (Wednesday), seeking cancellation of permit for the Puducherry registered air-conditioned sleeper bus that was involved in the accident,” T Karikalan, Transport Commissioner of Puducherry, told Express overphone. “The permit will be cancelled immediately after we receive the formal written communication from Tamil Nadu,” he added.The sleeper coach that went up in flames was a new bus registered in Puducherry last month. Karikalan said the bus had been operating on an old permit. “We stopped issuing permits for contract carriers (Omni Buses) five years ago. In this case, the operator replaced the running bus with a new vehicle using a valid permit.”According to the Motor Vehicles Act, permits must be renewed every five years and payment of tax should be made each quarterly to avail of all India permit. Besides, provisions had been made to replace vehicles with new ones under the valid permits by obtaining fitness certificates by the respective RTOs.Omni buses with sleeper coach facility that operated in Tamil Nadu avail permits from Puducherry, since such type of luxury coaches cannot be registered in the State (Tamil Nadu).  With the Puducherry Transport Department likely to cancel the permit, KPN Travels will not be able to replace the bus that was gutted in the fire near Vellore with another one.