On Tuesday morning at about 6:30 AM, a big luxury bus with 33 people caught fire on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway near the Khalapur toll plaza. Luckily, no one was hurt, but the fire caused a lot of traffic problems during the busy morning time.
This fire has raised important questions about how safe buses are and how to stop fires on highways. A safety check from the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation showed that almost half of the private buses on this route haven't had their fire safety checks in a long time. This is a big worry.
The fire started in the engine part of the bus and quickly spread to where the passengers were sitting. The bus driver acted fast, and everyone got off the bus safely in just 90 seconds. Emergency teams arrived quickly and put out the fire by 7:15 AM.
Because of this fire, traffic was stuck for 3.2 kilometers, affecting about 2,800 vehicles. Drivers had to take a longer route through Karjat, which made their trips about 45 minutes longer than usual.
Now, the Regional Transport Office is looking into what happened and checking the bus company's records. They found that while the bus had papers in order, its fire safety system mightn't have worked right.
To make things safer, the authorities will now require all commercial buses to have fire safety checks every month.
