With schools set to be reopened next month, nearly 100 school vehicles, including vans and buses, were tested unfit for use by Regional Transport Officers (RTOs) in Vellore, Ranipet, Tirupattur, and Tiruvannamalai districts as part of an annual assessment.

RTO officials said that at present, around 3,170 school vehicles were registered in these districts. f The annual assessment is being monitored by the district-level committee on school safety that includes Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO), Deputy SP, District Educational Officer (DEO) and Regional Transport Officer (RTO).

The assessment is done in May to provide adequate time for schools to do necessary repair and alteration works in the vehicles for re-examination by RTOs before re-opening of schools. “Separate ledgers are maintained for fitness-certified school vehicles and other vehicles. Stickers were also pasted for school vehicles that clears the fitness test,” M. Karunanidhi, RTO (Tiruvannamalai), told The Hindu.

On Friday, Collector K. Tharpagaraj inspected fitness verification of school vehicles in Police Quarters’ playground in Tiruvannamalai town in the presence of Muniraj, Chief Educational Officer (CEO), Tiruvannamalai.

Among nine RTOs, Tiruvannamalai has the highest number of school vehicles (871), followed by Vellore (480), Arani (430), Ranipet (480), and Vaniyambadi (322). Arakkonam has the lowest number with 239 school vehicles within its limits.

RTO officials said that the team has to check 21 other safety parameters, including the height of the footboard, strength of the floor, fire extinguisher, first aid kit, speed governor, driver’s cabin, seats, bag racks, windows, window grill, and emergency exits. Transport officials will paste ‘OK’ stickers on buses that passed the inspection. Deadline for unfit vehicles to get clearance is on or before May 31. 

 The newly formed Ranipet district has two RTOs - Ranipet and Arakkonam. Major towns like Arcot, Walajah, Sholinghur, and Thimiri come under the Ranipet RTO whereas Arakkonam RTO has Arakkonam and Nemili towns.

Officials said the tightening of rules, especially for school vehicles, became a norm after the passage of the Tamil Nadu Motor Vehicles (Regulation and Control of School Buses) Special Rules, 2012, which mandates officials to inspect school vehicles every year.