Gurugram police have prepared a plan to keep a fleet police buses on standby to ferry school students stranded anywhere in the city due to waterlogging following heavy rain, police said.
Police buses, along with personnel, will be kept ready for deployment. “Sometimes body height of buses used by police are further increased by adjusting suspension. The plan also included directions to Haryana Roadways to earmark spare buses for deployment, among other measures for students’ safety.
Kabiraj said 12 to 20 police buses will be kept ready for deployment during waterlogging. On August 25, a day after heavy rain caused waterlogging, Gurugram deputy commissioner Uttam Singh came up with a detailed plan under which traffic police would share real-time information on waterlogged routes with schools.
The directions were issued by police commissioner Sibash Kabiraj as part of a larger contingency plan under which every police station in Gurugram has been directed to prepare an “emergency response plan” for rain, waterlogging, fire incidents and other disasters. The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by Kabiraj late Wednesday, officials said. The plan aims to ensure students’ safety and provide them transportation if they are stranded, according to police. “Coordination will be established with school and district administration to send these buses at locations where children will be trapped,” he said. A senior police officer said the police force has various categories of buses, including conventional high-floor, wide-body buses with high ground clearance and bigger tyres that can cross waterlogged roads without their engines shutting down. Police officials said conventional buses used by police forces have ground clearance ranging between 260mm and 280mm, compared with 180mm to 230mm for school buses. The exhaust pipe is thus located at much height which doesn’t allows water to get inside allowing engine to keep running,” said an official of the police lines handling transport and vehicle maintenance.
