Overview
- On Tuesday, October 6, two separate bus fires — one near Ujjain and one on the Noida–Greater Noida Expressway — left the vehicles destroyed while all passengers were evacuated without injuries.
- The Ujjain blaze involved a privately operated bus recently brought under the Mukhyamantri Sugam Parivahan Seva contract and has inconsistent early accounts with police citing a rear tyre burst and state officials saying a short circuit; a formal inquiry has been opened.
- The Noida–Greater Noida incident involved a sleeper bus bound for Muzaffarpur with about 30–32 passengers who escaped safely and whose fire was put out by local fire crews.
- Officials have issued a show-cause notice to the Ujjain operator and ordered the Regional Transport Office to verify permits and fitness certificates and consider cancelling the vehicle’s permit while investigations continue.
- The fires follow the September 25 relaunch of the Sugam Parivahan Seva under a public‑private model and recent accidents that include a fatal Indore e-bus crash, raising political scrutiny and the likelihood of tighter oversight of operator contracts and bus fitness.