Navi Mumbai: As many as 14 passengers travelling in a sleeper-coach tourist bus from Udaipur, Rajasthan, to Pune in Maharashtra via the Mumbai-Pune Expressway had a narrow escape, along with the bus driver and conductor, after the vehicle abruptly caught fire due to a short circuit in the air-conditioning unit in the rear end of the bus.The incident occurred on Thursday around 7.20 am in the jurisdiction of Rasayani police station, after the bus had crossed Bhatan tunnel and reached the area near Rees village at the 16-km mark on the expressway.Abhijit Bhujbal, senior inspector of Rasayani, said the bus conductor alerted the driver about the fire smoke due to a short circuit in the air-conditioning unit. The driver immediately parked the bus on the extreme left service lane and all the passengers were evacuated. The bus conductor used a fire extinguisher to douse the fire, but it raged and gutted the entire vehicle. However, the luggage of the passengers was immediately removed from the bus compartment, thus preventing it from getting charred.Fire brigade teams from MSRTC, Panvel, Khopoli and Khalapur civic bodies rushed to the spot for the firefighting operation that lasted around an hour till 9.10 am, including cooling. Raigad traffic police had also stopped the movement of vehicles towards Pune for a distance of one km from the incident spot to prevent any untoward incident. After the firefighting operation was completed, the traffic movement was restored to normalcy around 9.30 am.Pravin Bodkhe, chief fire officer of Panvel civic body, said, “Vilas Palve, the leading fireman at New Panvel fire station, received the fire call at 7.34 am. The fire fighting rescue team with two fire engines rushed to the spot and reached at 8.15 am. It was observed that the tourist bus was up in flames, while all 14 passengers, driver and conductor were safe. Before our fire tenders reached the spot, fire tenders from Kalamboli, Palaspe in Panvel, Khopoli and Khalapur had already started the fire fighting operation using water hose pipes. Due to the fuel leakage from the bus, the fire had spread to the roadside as well. After ensuring that there was no further danger of any kind of fire at the scene, all the fire fighting vehicles left for the fire station.”
