Driver ferries bike in bus, fired

A driver on contractual duty has been sacked for parking his bike in a Vasai Virar Municipal Corporation (VVMC) owned bus.

According to the civic officials, the driver had also dismounted 10 passengers from the bus so that he could park his bike inside the bus and take it to the last stop and ride back home from the last destination. The VVMC commissioner Satish Lokhande has removed the driver from service for his action.

While the incident had occurred on the evening of June, the driver was fired on Saturday.

The driver Navin Patil, who used to drive VVMC bus (MH 48 C 185), which has a capacity to carry 56 passengers, made 10 passengers get off the bus, despite it being crowded. He hauled his bike (MH 04 EZ 5224) inside the bus, so that he could ride back home from the final destination, said Govinda Gunjalkar, a social activist from Vasai,who came to know about the incident and complained to the VVMCcommissioner.

The bus belongs to the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) scheme of the Centre and VVMC had received 30 new buses last year under this project, said Gunjalkar. The VVMC had outsourced the bus services to Bhagirathi Travels, a Borivali transport firm, to ply these buses in the twin cities of Vasai and Virar, said Mr Gunjalkar.

Confirming the incident, Mr Lokhande said, “Patil has brought a bad name to the VVMC and so I have removed him from service and asked the contracting firm Bhagirathi Travels to not employ him on VVMC bus routes.”