Overview
- Only automobile companies or Centre-accredited facilities may build sleeper coaches going forward.
- All in-service coaches must add fire detection, emergency lighting, safety hammers at exits, and driver drowsiness alerts.
- Nitin Gadkari asked states to investigate corruption and norm violations, and he sought action in Rajasthan over self-certification by manual builders.
- Road transport secretary V Umashankar wrote to chief secretaries to fix accountability, with enforcement anchored in the revised AIS-052 code effective September 1, 2025.
- Officials cited six recent sleeper-bus fires causing 145 deaths, and outlined plans to develop vehicle-to-vehicle communication using free spectrum starting with cars.