Shimla: As many as forty conductors working for the Himachal Pradesh Road Transport Corporation have tested positive for Covid, officials informed on Tuesday.
Joint Coordination Committee secretary Khemendra Gupta apprised the Himachal Pradesh Government about the situation and also on how to ensure safety of the bus staff while doing their duty.
In a statement issued here on Tuesday Mr Gupta said that fear was looming large among the staff members, suspecting that they might have contracted the virus while issuing tickets to passengers.
Meanwhile Transport Minister Bikram Singh Thakur is taking daily update about the health and well being of the infected staff members and instructions have been given to them to take all necessary precautions.
Mr Gupta said that since such a large number of conductors of the Himachal Pradesh Road Transport Corporation have contracted Covid now many of them are hesitant to work in crowded buses.
HRTC management is also considering a change in the present system of issuing tickets to passengers wherein the conductor would sit on the first seat and issue tickets to the passengers from the window before the departure of the bus.
Only after issuing the tickets safely to the passengers will they be allowed to board the bus.
The HRTC Joint Coordination Committee has demanded from the corporation management to implement this arrangement at the earliest.
Apart from this JCC is demanding proper sanitization of buses, arrangement of soaps for drivers and operators and thermal screening of passengers etc.
The management has also suggested for new seating arrangements in the buses as no one would occupy first, second and third seats and cabins are being built for the drivers inside the buses. Until this arrangement is done, ropes have been placed around the driver's seat to ensure minimum interaction with the passengers.
No limitations have been made regarding the seating capacity in the buses so far by the management to avert difficulty to passengers, JCC secretary added. (UNI)