In the early hours of December 16, a multi-vehicle pileup on the Yamuna Expressway in Mathura caused by fog-induced low visibility killed at least 13 people as a result of the fire caused by the successive crashes. While the crash involved three cars and seven buses, six of which were sleeper coaches, a factor that rescuers later said made evacuation more difficult was that passengers were trapped inside narrow berths amid smoke and fire.
Less than two months ago, on October 24, another sleeper bus caught fire in Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool district after it was hit by a motorcycle from behind, killing 20. Ten days before, a private AC sleeper bus travelling from Jaisalmer to Jodhpur went up in flames, killing 26 as fire spread rapidly through the coach.
The high casualties in these incidents have brought renewed attention to the safety of sleeper buses operating on India’s highways. While these incidents saw large-scale loss of lives, there are many incidents that have failed to grab the headlines, such as the one in Dehradun on December 18 when a group of 40 students from Tamil Nadu escaped without harm after their bus caught fire in Dehradun. In another incident on November 27, a Delhi-Varanasi bus in Kanpur caught fire, even as the passengers only escaped with injuries.
The issue also reached Parliament. In a written reply on December 18, the Union government said at least 64 people had lost their lives in 45 incidents of buses catching fire while in operation over the last three years.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) also took cognisance and wrote to the chief secretaries of states on November 27 to take action against all sleeper buses that violate fire safety norms.
Sleeper buses were not always common on Indian highways. The first organised experiments began in southern India, with state transport undertakings such as the erstwhile Mysore State Road Transport Corporation introducing sleeper bus services as early as 1966.
But, the current proliferation of sleeper buses began much later. Experts trace it to the four-laning of national highways in the early 2000s, which made overnight intercity travel viable. The segment matured in the 2010s, driven by better roads, rising interstate migration, tourism, and persistent supply gaps in long-distance train availability.
Sleeper buses filled a vacuum — particularly for passengers unable to secure confirmed train tickets on popular overnight routes. But, this growth occurred largely in an unorganised and lightly regulated ecosystem.
“There is no precise number of sleeper buses operating in India,” said Mohammed Afzal, vice-president of the Bus and Car Operators Confederation of India (BOCI). India has around two million buses, nearly 90% of them privately operated, with sleeper services cut across organised fleets and informal operators.
Popular bus aggregator platform Redbus recently said intercity buses run by 6,000 active private operators carried more than 140 million people between April and September 2025. They said sleeper and hybrid buses accounted for 85% of all journeys, with AC services accounting for 71% of all journeys.
Experts said that while the passengers faced the same fate in the various accidents noted above, there is a crucial but often overlooked distinction of fires caused by crashes versus fires that begin without any impact.
To be sure, the Union government’s response also mentioned the incident in Kurnool but was not counted in the numbers. Even the Yamuna Expressway pileup would not be counted.
“In collision-related cases, fuel lines rupture, temperatures spike and, with oxygen available, fire becomes almost unavoidable,” said Anil Chhikara, former deputy transport commissioner of Delhi and currently faculty at Asian Institute of Transport Development. “But, a large number of sleeper bus fires are non-impact fires. They start due to electrical overload and are entirely preventable.”
“Often there are many cases where buses catch fire due to wiring faults or overheating, following which passengers manage to escape, and the incident never triggers a serious investigation,” Chhikara said.
Experts such as Chhikara point out that these non-impact fires are mostly seen in non-premium AC sleeper buses. And many sleeper buses involved in fires are not factory built sleepers but standard coaches retrofitted locally after their registration.
The difference in premium and non-premium is based on the investments made by the bus operators. While a factory built AC sleeper bus will cost around ₹2 crore, a custom built sleeper coach would cost less than ₹1 crore but without the mandated safety features. At present, only 10% of all buses run by the state-run corporations and premium fleet operators run such buses which are designed in accordance to the latest safety features.
“These retrofitted AC sleeper buses are uniquely vulnerable,” Chikkara said. Continuous air-conditioning, lighting, and charging points often run for 14 to 15 hours at a stretch, even during roadside halts. “Many are retrofitted locally to add AC systems, drawing extremely high amperage,” he added.
Unlike original equipment manufacturers that use multiplex wiring to distribute electrical load safely, local bus body builders often rely on cheaper components sourced from informal markets. “When wires overheat, insulation burns, sparking begins and once fire enters the wiring network, it spreads through the entire bus in minutes,” he said.
Chikkara said hammers to break the glass panels during emergency and fire alarm and suppressor systems are also not usually provided in buses customised by local body builders.
Other than the wiring, what turns such fires into mass fatality events is the sleeper coach layout itself. Narrow aisles, stacked berths and limited headroom severely restrict movement during emergencies. Technically, sleeper buses are required to have multiple emergency exits, but in practice rear exits are often blocked after registration to add extra berths in many of the custom built buses.
“In a fire, passengers then have to crawl through several compartments to reach an escape point. If there is no space to stand or move, escape becomes impossible,” said Aditya Rane, senior associate at ITDP India, which provides knowledge support to bus operators.
Weak oversight, regulatory gaps
In India, the Automotive Industry Standards such as AIS-052 (bus body code), AIS-119 (sleeper bus code) and AIS-134 (fire detection and suppression systems) lay down requirements for construction and fire safety.
But, SN Dhole, head of technical secretariat at Central Institute of Road Transport (CIRT), said enforcement has failed to keep pace. “Standards exist, but compliance is largely document-based,” he said.
“Local body builders often use parts that cannot withstand sustained heat and electrical load while materials such as flammable materials, such as foam, which should be avoided are used, adding the risk profile,” he added.
A key regulatory shift between 2022 and 2024 allowed accredited body builders to self certify. Routine physical inspections by Regional Transport Offices (RTOs) were diluted, with authorities relying increasingly on uploaded certificates. But, Dhole said even though this rule was reversed, the flaws go undetected or ignored.
RTOs are expected to issue fitness certificates every two years and flag malpractices in vehicle design. “There is an acute shortage of trained engineers who can actually assess electrical systems and fire safety. In many states, clerical staff have been assigned inspection duties because technical posts remain vacant,” explained Chhikara.
Gurmit Singh, another office-bearer of BOCI, flagged another common feature in the current scheme of things. “Often vehicles are registered in Arunachal Pradesh or Nagaland, and they are not subjected to real physical fitness tests and operate thousands of kilometres away with minimal oversight.”
He said, in light of these recent incidents, the Union road transport ministry during a stakeholder meeting, had mulled putting a blanket ban on customised sleeper buses in favour of only OEM-made coaches.
Incidentally, China had banned sales of all types of sleeper buses after some fatal accidents in 2012.
The victims of the recent bus fires were passengers with limited choices.
“These are typically people who cannot afford premium buses and are unable to get confirmed train tickets, especially on long-distance routes. They travel overnight, trusting that the bus is safe,” said Madhu Sudan Sharma, senior programme officer at Consumer Unity and Trust Society and member of the Road Safety Network from Rajasthan. The state has seen the maximum number of fatalities, according to the Union government figures tabled in the Parliament.
Sharma said it is only in light of these recent tragedies that the Rajasthan transport department has begun tightening checks on private operators and body builders, focusing on fitness, fire safety systems and unauthorised modifications. He said sustained enforcement would be critical to prevent repeat incidents.