T'gana govt sets up helpline for kin of Hyderabad-Bengaluru bus accident victims
Hyderabad (PTI): The Telangana government on Friday set up a helpline to assist the families of passengers of the Hyderabad to Bengaluru private bus, which was involved in an accident in Kurnool district of neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.
The government, in a release, said that its officers M Sriramachandra (M 9912919545) and E Chittibabu (M 9440854433) can be contacted for help.
The helpline was set up following a directive by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, who spoke to government Chief Secretary K Ramakrishna Rao and DGP Shivadhar Reddy.
The Chief Minister instructed IAS officer S Harish and also Collector and Superintendent of Police of Gadwal district of Telangana, neighbouring Kurnool district, to reach the accident site and coordinate relief measures.
According to a Telangana government release, 43 people were on board the ill-fated bus. Of them, 23 managed to escape the tragedy, while 11 dead bodies have been found.
Details of the remaining people were being verified.
Meanwhile, Telangana Transport Minister Ponnam Prabhakar said he would hold a meeting with his Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka counterparts to devise measures to prevent such accidents, given the high volume of daily bus travel between Telangana and Karnataka via Andhra Pradesh.
In a video posted on X, he warned private bus operators of strict action if they showed negligence in maintaining vehicle fitness and adhering to statutory regulations.
The owners should follow rules and ensure that the buses do not overspeed (as the private buses are known to travel at a high speed), Prabhakar said.
The ill-fated bus was registered in Odisha and was operating between Hyderabad and Bengaluru, he said.
The routine checks conducted by the transport department are often termed as harassment, he added.
Union Ministers G Kishan Reddy, Bandi Sanjay Kumar, Telangana Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, BRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao and other leaders condoled the loss of lives in the bus accident.
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Indigo cancels 67 flights from multiple airports due to bad weather, operational issues
Mumbai (PTI): Domestic carrier IndiGo on Thursday cancelled 67 flights from multiple airports due to "forecasted" bad weather and operational reasons, according to the airline's website.
Of the 67 cancelled flights, only four were for operational reasons, and the rest were due to "forecasted" bad weather at various airports, including Agartala, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Varanasi, Bengaluru, among others, as per the website.
Aviation regulator, DGCA, has announced the period between December 10 and February 10 next year as the official fog window this winter.
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As part of the DGCA fog operations (CAT-IIIB) norms, airlines have to mandatorily roster pilots who are trained to operate in low-visibility conditions, as well as deploy a CAT-IIIB-compliant aircraft fleet for such operations.
Category-III is an advanced navigation system that empowers an aircraft to land under foggy conditions.
Category-III-A is a precision instrument approach and landing that enables a plane to land with a runway visual range (RVR) of 200 metres, while Category-III-B helps in landing with an RVR of under 50 metres.
IndiGo, whose operations are under DGCA monitoring after the cancellations of thousands of flights early this month, is already operating a curtailed schedule in compliance with the government's order.
Under its original winter flight schedule, the airline was permitted to operate 15,014 domestic flights per week, or about 2,144 flights per day, roughly six per cent higher than the 14,158 weekly flights it operated during the summer schedule of 2025.
However, after the massive disruptions, which saw the airline cancelling 1,600 flights on a single day on account of new rest norms for pilots, which allow more rest to the pilots, the government cut down the airline's domestic flight schedule by 10 per cent or 214 flights per day.
As a result of that, IndiGo can't operate more than 1,930 flights per day on domestic routes under its current winter schedule.
The Rahul Bhatia-controlled airline cancelled thousands of flights between December 1 and December 9 on account of a lack of proper planning, and crew shortage in implementing the new set of regulations for pilots' duty period and rest, which were put in place from November 1, thereby causing severe hardships to lakhs of air travellers.
Following this, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) formed a four-member panel, comprising Joint DG Sanjay Brahamane, Deputy Director General Amit Gupta, senior Flight Operations Inspector Kapil Manglik, and FOI Lokesh Rampal, with a mandate to identify the root causes of widespread operational disruptions at the Rahul Bhatia-controlled domestic carrier.
The panel, which has already grilled IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers and Chief Operating Officer Isidre Porqueras as part of its probe, is expected to submit its report by this week.
Meanwhile, IndiGo, in a travel advisory on X, said, "Low visibility and fog over Bangalore has impacted flight schedule. We are keeping a close watch on the weather and doing our best where you need to be safely, smoothly".
Reacting to the advisory, an aggrieved passenger, in an X post, said, "My flight on December 20 from Bhubaneswar to Ahmedabad got delayed for more than five hours, and today my return flight from Ahmedabad to Bhubaneswar also got delayed more than three hours with the same excuse as bad weather. I am travelling with my senior citizen parents, and this delay is not acceptable. Need proper explanation, along with compensation".
