Jamshedpur: East Singhbhum DC Amit Kumar on Thursday said they would starting checking how far private schools here had progressed in launching buses for students as ordered by the administration.

The administration last December had directed all private schools to start bus services to put an end to the mishap threat faced by children on overloaded and speeding vans and autos. All students below 18 were eligible to take school buses for which the institutions were asked to scout for agencies.

So far, no private school has introduced the buses. Though some school authorities sought quotations from travel agents for buses, most say parents prefer to send their children in pool vans and autos that pick up students from and drop them at home.

Asked, DC Kumar said introducing school buses was an administrative directive for students' safety.

"When it was a directive, there was no point in the schools consulting the parents. Therefore, now the administration will once again analyse the status of school buses and send the next directive," he said.

He admitted they had not been able to follow this directive up due to the festive season. "However, now we will start taking updates on what schools have done so far. Only then will we issue the next directive. There are too many road accidents and students are always at risk," DC Kumar said.

Asked about the progress of the school bus service, principal of DBMS English School Rajani Shekhar said they had identified two routes, one from Adityapur-Kadma side and the other from Mango-Dimna-Sakchi side.

"A few parents have shown interest (in the school bus service) but it will take some time. We also held a meeting with parents and clarified their queries," she said.

Her counterpart in Kerala Samajam Model School, Nandini Shukla, said they too had identified two routes, including one from Telco where they had a considerable number of students.

"We did a survey and cost analysis and a small percentage of parents has agreed on the two routes we identified. But, as there is no point ferrying four or five students on one route, the school bus service will take some time to be implemented," she said.