Five Years After Privatization, India’s Buses Driving Citizens, Officials Mad

Men seeking licenses to run buses crowd into a small, dingy room filled with mountains of yellowing files and point accusing fingers. The chaos on New Delhi’s roads is “all the government’s fault,” bus company representative yells at a civil servant. “No, it’s all your doing,” the civil servant replies.

Such heated exchanges have become a regular affair since the local transport authority announced in September that it was considering resuming control of mass transport in the Indian capital, five years after privatizing the system.

As many as 854 people have died in accidents caused by private buses in New Delhi the last two years, the government said.

New Delhi’s money-losing, state-run public transport company granted 3,000 licenses to private companies to run bus services in the city beginning in 1992.

In recent years, New Delhi roads have become a nightmare, with traffic deaths blamed on buses practically every other day. Officials argue that the privatization experiment was a disaster, saying private buses cannot provide safe mass transportation.

Private operators blame accidents on the lack of government oversight. Private bus drivers are not required to take driving-safety classes or regular tests to ensure their competence.

If a private bus is involved in a fatal accident, the driver is let off with a fine of 15,000 rupees, about $430, and is on the road again. The second death will cost him 50,000 rupees ($1,430). Only the third accident will cost him his license.

Commuters say large numbers of accidents happen every day because bus drivers are in a mad rush to reach bus stops ahead of their competitors, thereby earning one more fare. Fares range from 1 to 5 rupees, depending on the distance traveled.

“They all drive like maniacs,” said Laxmi Maisnam, a student who takes the bus to school every day.