Pandavapura accident: Bus from Mangaluru; 18 years old!

Mangaluru: The bus named ‘Rajkumar’, which was responsible for the death of 30 people at Pandavapura in Manday on Saturday is originally from Mangaluru and is apparently an18 year old vehicle!

The bus was first registered in 2001 in the name of Shankara Vittal Company and has been later owned by 8 different owners. Thirteen years back, under the ownership of RK (Rajkumar) travels, this bus used to ply Mangaluru-Balkunje-Kateel route. This bus was sold off by RK travels, 13 years ago. Later, it changed hands with several owners and in 2015 was bought by Shrinivas of Mandya, incidentally becoming the 9^th owner of the bus.

In the end, this bus was plying along the city bus route number 16 (State Bank – Sultan Battery). However, as the bus was now 15 years old and since the RTO refused to renew its permit, it was sold off, informed Jhon Misquith, Mangaluru regional transport officer.

The previous owners of the bus had not changed the name of the bus from Rajkumar, as they considered it to be good. Therefore, till date it was functioning on its first name, informed Shivraj Shetty, to ‘Udayavani’. Shetty is the owner of R K Travels and had sold the bus 13 years back.