Government to meet school bus operators on December 8 over norm violations
Telegraph | 5 December 2025
Transport department officials and police will meet pool car and school bus operators on December 8 to address concerns about a section flouting norms and remind them of the penal provisions.
“The state government has drawn up specific guidelines for pool car and school bus operators. Some operators are flouting them, risking the lives of children. The meeting will drive home the concerns of the state government about those who have been operating without adhering to the guidelines,” a senior official of the transport department said on Wednesday.
The meeting comes against the backdrop of an accident involving a pool car in Howrah’s Uluberia, where three children, between six and 11 years of age, died after the vehicle fell into a pond on November 24. Two others of the same age escaped with injuries.
The police investigation revealed that the pool car, a Maruti Omni, lost control and fell into the pond while carrying the children from a kindergarten, Mother Marina Mission School, in Uluberia.
There were six children in the pool car, and the driver had dropped off one of them minutes before the accident occurred. Eyewitnesses told police that the pool car veered off the road, tumbled down the bank, landed in the pond, and sank.
“The Maruti Omni, which fell into the pond while ferrying children, was registered on November 10, 2003, as a private vehicle. It was 22 years old, and the vehicle’s registration had lapsed. So ideally, it should not have been on the road,” a senior transport department official said.
A section of pool car operators said they have been complaining for a long time about some private vehicles doubling as pool cars, which is a contravention of the norms laid down by the transport department.
Only commercial vehicles with valid permits “for carriage of schoolchildren” can qualify as pool cars, the transport department’s notification said.
There are nearly 2,500 pool cars in and around Calcutta carrying students to different schools, and many operate without being registered as commercial vehicles.
The state government, over the last few years, has repeatedly instructed pool car operators to ensure they were registered as commercial vehicles and apply for a permit “for carriage of schoolchildren.
“In June, the transport department issued a directive making it mandatory for pool car owners and all commercial vehicle owners to install vehicle location tracking devices. But many operators have not installed a tracking device,” the senior transport department official said.