Bus bodybuilding code coming up

The overwhelming majority of passenger buses in India today have bodies built on driveaway chassis meant for goods vehicles. Bus bodybuilding to date has been an unregulated exercise, carried out by both organised and small-scale enterprises and roadside workshops, with the barest minimum of technical and safety standards specified.

Operator demand for the lowest-cost vehicles with absolutely no regard for passenger safety has resulted in a diversity of poorly engineered designs and faulty fabrication practices. Interestingly, the Central Institute of Road Transport (CIRT) in Pune has found that mass passenger transport systems in many cities have failed to catch on largely because of poor bus body design.

Under the present rules, bodybuilders must submit a fitness certificate in the prescribed format (Form 22) to the RTO for registration of a vehicle. However, according to Balraj Bhanot, former ARAI director and chairman of the Transport Engineering Divisional Council of the Bureau of Indian Standards, the ill-equipped RTOs often pass vehicles that don’t even meet the basic requirements.

This will begin to change when the Central Motor Vehicles (Accreditation for Bus Body Builders) Order, 2007, notified by the Government of India on 23 March 2007, takes effect later this month. This will herald the enforcement of a comprehensive Bus Body Code (BBC), expected later this year.

The ‘Code of Practice for Bus Body Design and Approval’ was first formulated in 2001 by a technical committee set up by the Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways (MoSRT&H). Chaired by the director of Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), the committee included members from industry, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), and Association of State Road Transport Undertakings (ASRTU). The code was notified by the ministry under the Central Motor Vehicle Rules in September 2005, and revised in October 2007.

Type approval

Beginning from 23 March, all bodybuilders will have to submit to an assessment for accreditation by a National Accreditation Board (NAB) if they want to stay in business. The purpose of accreditation is to establish their capability and capacity to consistently produce bus bodies. RTO approval will also be dependent on this.

In addition, they will be obligated to not only have all their designs type-approved by ARAI as meeting the requirements specified in the code in accordance with AIS:052, but also demonstrate conformity of production.

In other words, they will not be allowed to produce or sell any bus bodystyle that has not been rigorously tested by ARAI for conformance to AIS:052. ARAI is the only body in the country presently that is fully equipped to carry out such testing. The actual procedure for type approval and conformity of production of bus bodies built by accredited bodybuilders will be notified by the Central government later this year.

The BBC encompasses a number of AIS and IS specifications such as for lateral protection of bus bodies, rear underrun protection, window retention and release, doors and locking systems, rear view mirrors and installation, windscreen wiping systems and area, driver’s field of vision, etc.

Pune workshop

Both the accreditation system and the code were the subject of a two-day national workshop in Pune last fortnight organised by CIRT and sponsored by the MoSRT&H, ASRTU, and ARAI. Subject experts from CIRT and ARAI made presentations to representatives of bodybuilders from the western and southern region and prominent OEMs including Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland, Force Motors, Mercedes-Benz India, Corona Bus, and Mahindra International.

Works managers from MSRTC’s Dapodi workshop, Regional Transport Officers from a number of zones in Maharashtra, and the chief mechanical engineers of the Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka STUs also attended, besides officials from the Gujarat and West Bengal STUs. CIRT scientist D P Saste took the delegates through the benefits of accreditation, the different categories under which bodybuilders would be accredited based on their capabilities, the application process for assessment, the assessment and its scope, the qualifications of and code of conduct for the assessors, the contractual obligations, rights and duties of accredited BBBs, and the grievance redress mechanism.

The NAB’s working will be overseen by the ASRTU in New Delhi, and the actual assessment of bodybuilders will be carried out by four zonal accreditation boards (ZABs). Initially two ZABs each will be situated at CIRT and ARAI, both in Pune. The accreditation will be valid for four years, at which time the bodybuilder will have to go in for a reassessment. This should, however, be just a formality for those that maintain and update their documentation over the period of accreditation, Saste said.

The BBC has been a long time coming and will help regulate an industry that is expected to contribute substantially to increased mobility in India.