BUS COACH

Mobility is one of the key elements in the lives of human beings not only For work,
social, educati onal and other acti viti es but also for pleasure seeking. Mobility is also
an essenti al ingredient in the development, progress and prosperity of nati ons. Buses
and coaches are the all important means for providing such mobility to all categories
and classes of people.

Design development and quality of these vehicles has. however not received adequate
att enti on of vehicle designers, safely acti viti es, service providers and other interest
groups like users, tourists and Tour operators. Consequently buses and coaches,
barring some, are built on truck chassis by inadequately equipped bus body builders
including 'under the tree " fabricators with scant regard to their quality and
aestheti cs.
In the recent past, however a few reputed and well equipped manufacturers have
taken up the task of developing and manufacturing world class buses and coaches.
Commuters and Tourist have also started demanding improved comfort levels, safety,
and environmental friendliness incorporated into them. Consequently some world class
buses are seen on the roads as a welcome development.

Following the above situati on the concerned governments agencies have been working
in tandem with the automoti ve industry bus and coach operator, tourists and other
users to not only bring about visible improvement in structural stability and strength,
passengers comfort and safety, noise and air polluti on control aestheti cs, etc but also
in standardizati on of designs, creati on of their unique identi ty and the much sought
aft er quality image for this sector, In that a 'code of practi ce' for bus body builders has
been developed and adopted as an automoti ve industry standard to bring about
standardizati on of bus and coach requirements as also to set fabricati ons, certi fi cati on
and quality assurance bench marks, Steps have also been taken to improve bus and
coach fabricati on capabiliti es by laying down bus fabricati on faciliti es' requirements
and evolving a system of accreditati on of bus body builders in the country. All these
are welcome developments for the bus and coach industry as also for the operators
and the users alike.

Obtaining and maintaining highest quality standards involves conti nual interacti on
amongst the academicians, researchers, technologists, designers, coach and bus
operators and users in parti cular and the communiti es in general. Bus Coach India
Journal is intended to provide a much needed platf orm for the said purpose. This
journal is a fi rst att empt to provide you some food for thought in improving the quality
and identi ty of the bus and coach industry.