Anjuna-Assagao-Mapusa buses crammed, says PIL

Panaji: A PIL in the high court of Bombay at Goa has alleged rampant over-boarding of private, KTC and Bal Rath buses operating on the Anjuna-Assagao-Mapusa route, particularly during peak hours — 7.30am to 8.30am, 1pm to 2pm, and 6pm to 6.30pm — when students travel to and from their respective educational institutions.“We can just imagine a situation where students and senior citizens cram into the buses in which the destination is for some urgent work, including attending schools and colleges,” a division bench comprising Justices Bharati Dangre and Nivedita Mehta has observed.The PIL has been filed by Radhakrishna Vijay Salgaonkar, who regularly commutes on this route. He has sought the HC’s urgent intervention and has stated that the route includes steep descents, sharp curves, ongoing construction, and a valley, along which such buses could overturn or meet with accidents due to the excessive loading of passengers.Salgaonkar has also stated that the buses are often packed far beyond their permissible capacity, with passengers hanging from the doors and crammed into drivers’ cabins, where, apart from the serious risk of physical injury, female students, including minors, are also exposed to harassment on a regular basis.In order to pass directions to the authorities concerned to deal with the issue, the HC has directed Salgaonkar to conduct more research and submit to it information on the frequency of the buses plying on the route during peak hours and throughout the day, so that some of the load can be handled by the KTC as well as private buses during peak hours.

The petitioner had filed repeated complaints in 2022 and 2023 before the relevant authorities and had even warned he would go to court. “Despite this, govt authorities failed to hold inspection drives during peak hours, did not enforce provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act, and did not initiate criminal or disciplinary action against the violators,” he has stated.