Bhubaneswar: Even as the Kalinga Studio Square bus fire incident refuses to fade from public memory, another ‘Ama Bus’ (Mo Bus) has been reduced to ashes today. An electric bus caught fire during charging at the Patia electric bus depot in Bhubaneswar.
Is the ‘Ama Bus’ service in the state capital becoming increasingly unsafe? After a bus was gutted by fire yesterday at Kalinga Studio Square, a similar incident has occurred again today. This time, the incident took place at the Patia bus depot.
Visuals from the spot show that an ‘Ama Bus’ parked at the Gadakana Electric Bus Depot in Patia suddenly caught fire. According to sources, the fire broke out while the bus was undergoing charging inside the depot.
While yesterday’s incident involved a bus catching fire with passengers on board, today’s fire during charging inside the depot has raised serious questions over the safety standards and maintenance of electric buses. On receiving information, the fire services rushed to the spot and managed to bring the blaze under control.
With such incidents occurring repeatedly, the question arises: who is responsible? Whether the Capital Region Urban Transport (CRUT) authorities will take concrete steps in this regard remains to be seen.