Kochi: MVD seizes permits of overspeeding buses

Kochi: The Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) has started impounding permits of private luxury buses caught speeding on CCTV cameras multiple times,  which failed to remit the penalties.

The drive was launc-hed on Friday, the third day of ‘Operation Night Rider,’ after Transport Commissioner Sudesh Kumar directed the RTOs to collect pending penalty dues from the private luxury buses in the wake of the Kallada assault controversy.

“We took action against five such Contract Carriage buses. For instance, we impounded the permit of a vehicle of SRS Travels after the buses operated by the agency were caught speeding by CCTV cameras 206 times. The owner had failed to remit the penalty amou-nting to Rs 82, 400. After the action, he paid the pending dues by even-ing,” said Ernakulam Enforcement RTO K. Manojkumar.

The special squad officials have been provided with a list of luxury buses with similar pending penalty dues. “They were directed to either impound the permit or collect the dues during Operation Night Rider,” the official said.

Earlier, the commissioner formed a special squad entrusted with collection of penalty dues (various offences) which amounted to Rs 600 crore during the last 20 years.

Meanwhile, a total of 312 luxury private buses were inspected by the officials throughout the state in the morning and collected Rs 7.89 lakh towards fine.

“In Ernakulam, we took cases against 25 buses and collected a fine of Rs 75, 000. The checking will continue in the night and tomorrow morning,” the official said.

The operation follows the brutal attack on three passengers travelling on Kallada Travels at Vyttila on Sunday last and also similar complaints received from several passengers. Offences like individual ticketing, carrying unauthorised goods and tampering with speed governors among others were found during the exercise.