TNSTC Blog – TamilNadu State Transport Corporation Blog

Presenting our viewers the most awaited ARAI AIS 052 prototype buses being built at TNSTC Karur-Manmangalam Body Building Unit. Even though we were lagging in terms of timelines in adapting the new AIS 052 code when compared to neighboring RTC’s, the wait seems to be worth for it. The very first impression on looking at the prototypes built for City and Moffusil operations at Karur BBU is  “Just Awesome”. The front facia is carrying a fresh look with LED route boards on top replacing the traditional Stickers representing the corporation, an dual butterfly wipers for the first time for In-house body and neatly placed grills. Let’s have some detail look on our new design.

A Big Thanks to Elango Sir for sharing the pics 🙂

A little background on AIS 052 Code 

According to statistics bus body failures is the prime factor for high number of fatalities during road accidents. So the CG has imposed strict standards on body building and enforced the products should comply AIS 052 Bus body code defined by Automobile Research Association of India (ARAI)-Pune  The AIS 052 standards is widely used for city and short distance mofussil operation buses. So far many state owned and private body builders have obtained this certification from ARAI .Now TNSTC has come up with its own prototype for testing and certification . If certified this will be the standard designs for our TNSTC  going forward and every TNSTC BBU will have to adhere to this design pattern ..

More details on AIS 052 can be viewed HERE

A Big relief from Rail type sliding windows

TNSTC-Villupuram was the one to introduce rail type sliding windows way back around 2005,over the period this model was standardized when TNSTC started outsourcing bodybuilding to private units at Karur. We could see that this move was aimed for saving few perks on the bodybuilding but it costed dearly in terms of commuters comfort.These windows were not strong enough to withstand our road conditions and the lock which use to hold the top portion of glass used to break regularly. An passenger with an average height of 5.5 feet can’t lean on the window as these locks were projecting straight to the fore head area and would often cause injuries during jerks. Also these windows were a big hurdle for those who want to have a outside view. With rolling back to horizontal sliders on this new design one can expect more peaceful commute on  3hrs + Journey.

Pneumatic Doors

The proposed prototypes have Pneumatic (Air) Doors controlled by Drivers which is a major leap on the passenger safety.This will avoid foot boarding which is the nightmare for crews. The pneumatic doors will ensure safety for lady passengers who happened to stand close to front rear doors on jam packed peak hours. Both the city and inter city buses will have doors as per new norms. Our High court also ordered TNSTC to fix doors on all buses but its done only on major cities now with the new rule crews will be more happy for this automatic doors on initial days it will be a little difficult for operations but once it set it will be a big achievement towards Safety. More over these door will act as a better weather shield during  winter and rainy seasons.

Seating Capacity and Leg Space 

The current seating capacity of our City variant is 40 and Mofussil is 57 . The seating capacity on these new models will be reduced bringing huge relief for passengers.  The proposed layout brings down the present 5 seating format adjacent to driver area to 3 seats similar to that of Kerala RTC and it will be applicable for both city and Mofussil versions. On  the rear portion of the bus ,the second last row of seats (3 seater)  located facing entry stairs will be removed for easy access of Emergency Exit .With these amendments the overall seating capacity will be reduced 36 and 51 for city and mofussil variants respectively. This will result in ample leg space and reduce the strain and pain . Thanks to ARAI , now TNSTC has to acknowledge that the travelers measuring 5.5+ feet are also Human beings and not some Dump luggage. Now the last seat next to emergency doors will be VIP seats as it has double the leg spaces. Seats will also be standardized to have have good cushion and high head rest. The platform levels are raised and will have a hassle free travel over front and rear tyres.

Emergency Exit

The Rear portion on the driver side has been provisioned with an PROPER Emergency Exit (EE) which can be operated from both inside and outside. For easy access to this EE seats objecting the path have been removed. On front portion of the bus,the second window from driver doesn’t have the rails running over it making it as an alternate EE.  Similar provision is made for the window situated before the front door on the other side.The rear glass will also be an breakable one and can be used as Emergency Exit. The only disadvantage on this arrangement is that the route board placed on top of the glass hold a good area and becomes as major obstacle in the escape path. This can be rectified by placing the route board below the rear glass .The platform level can be matched with the rear glass for easy step out on any emergency.

Overall this new design is refreshing one in terms of Safety,Comfort and cosmetics. We hope our new buses will soon hit the roads based on these new standards.  Our body building units has already proved their skill sets in the past by making their own trademark designs under given limited opportunities. Let’s wait for their eye-catching innovations on the front profiling  from every TNSTC Regional BBU as per this new AIS 052 code.

Like any other fans ,we at Team TNSTCBLOG are eagerly expecting them on road with our eyes kept wide open 🙂 .