Delhi tightens bus safety rules after Noida gang rape
Panic buttons and tracking must work. Curtains and tinted films are out.
The Delhi Transport Department ordered bus operators on Tuesday to keep Vehicle Location Tracking Devices and panic buttons working at all times. Curtains and unauthorised films on bus glass are banned. Buses must stop only at authorised, safe spots, and park at night only in secure, well-lit places.
The order covers buses that run in Delhi and interstate buses that enter the capital. Operators were also told to check that drivers hold valid licences and wear prescribed uniforms. Fire extinguishers and first-aid kits must be on board.
Transport minister Pankaj Singh said passenger safety is non-negotiable and that violations will draw action, including fines, impounding, or licence trouble.
The push follows the alleged gang rape of a teenage girl from Mainpuri, Uttar Pradesh, on a sleeper bus on the night of 4 August. Police say the driver and conductor assaulted her on the way toward Noida and left her near Kashmere Gate. Both accused have been arrested. Police have pointed to curtains around sleeper berths as something that helped hide what was happening inside.
Delhi permit conditions already barred curtains and unauthorised tint after the 2012 Nirbhaya case. Enforcement has been uneven. Curtain challans fell sharply this year even as overall bus enforcement rose.
A girl on an interstate sleeper bus was attacked inside a moving vehicle. The capital's answer is to restate rules that were supposed to make the cabin visible from outside and reachable by tracking and panic buttons.
That is the post-2012 safety kit again: visibility, working devices, authorised stops. The question is whether operators actually keep those systems on, and whether inspectors treat curtains and dead trackers as hard stops rather than paperwork.
For passengers, especially women and children on night routes into Delhi, the paper order only helps if the next bus they board looks different.
Operators have been told to comply now. How many buses lose curtains, fix trackers, and face real penalties in the coming weeks will show whether this was a lasting change or another circular after a crime.