Auto giant Tata Motors, under attack for a series of fire-related mishaps in its low-floor buses, on Thursday ruled out any design flaw in the vehicles but admitted room for improvement in their maintenance even as one more bus caught fire in the city.
Admitting that there may be some problem in braking system of the fleet, president of commercial vehicle business unit of Tata Motors Ravi Pisharody said the company has identified two to three possible reasons for the mishaps and working on them accordingly.
"There is no inherent design or manufacturing flaw in the buses...but there may be some minor problem in the braking system.
We have identified two-three possible causes and are working on them," he told reporters here. Pisharody said the company has taken a series of measures to improve maintenance of the fleet like enhancing facilities at the depots and increasing number of engineers and technicians besides carrying out a "complete health check-up" of nearly 950 vehicles within January 31.
"We are augmenting the maintenance of the entire fleet. The number of depots will soon be increased from 10 to 20. The number of Tata Motors engineers will also be increased from current 24 to 50 by February," Pisharody said.
Meanwhile in the ninth such incident in less than one month, another low-floor DTC bus supplied by the Tata Motors caught fire today in East Delhi but no one was injured in the incident. The government has suspended manager R K Sharma of the depot where the bus underwent maintenance.
Asked whether Tata Motors was to be blamed for the incidents, Pisharody said if the incidents took place because of lapse in maintenance then the "company was ready to take the responsibilities".
However, he said regular check up of buses has been intensified to ensure that no such incidents happen in the future. The company has also decided to upgrade infrastructure in the depots and an investment in the range of 70 to 80 lakh will be required per depot for the purpose.
Explaining reasons behind the incidents, the Tata Motors official said the company has identified faulty battery cable, leakage in engine coolant, leakage in steering oil and problem in the braking system as some of the reasons for the mishaps. The Delhi government had earlier imposed a hefty fine of Rs four crore on Tata Motors for "not properly" maintaining the buses it manufactured. It had also decided to withhold a payment of Rs 150 crore to the Tatas and warned of legal action if corrective steps were not taken by the company.
On the fire incident in which the entire bus got burnt on December 3, he said the probe has found that dragging of the left brake system and overheating of the wheel resulted in the mishap.
Pisharody said apart from the bus that caught fire on December 3, no damage was caused to any of the buses where some incidents were reported.
"None of these vehicles caught fire although some smoke was observed in a few cases. If you pour cold water on a hot surface, then obviously vaporisation takes place...In some cases, it was not even smoke. It was vapour," he said. PTI
