Calcutta, July 2: Private school bus and pool car operators will have to install speed limiters in their vehicles by July 31 and make them GPS-enabled by September 30.

"We have told school bus and pool car operators that accidents have to stop immediately," transport minister Suvendu Adhikari said today while announcing the deadlines.

Today's government decision comes after two accidents within a week exposed the unsafe ride of schoolchildren.

"All unauthorised vehicles will have to get regularised immediately so that they are registered as commercial vehicles and have a permit," he said.

A speed limiter is a small device that controls the flow of fuel to a vehicle's engine and ensures a driver cannot accelerate beyond a point.

The Supreme Court has said vehicles carrying schoolchildren, including buses, should have speed limiters to ensure the maximum speed is 40kmph.

The ministry of road transport and highways has made it mandatory for all commercial vehicles within city limits to have speed limiters so that they don't go beyond 60kmph.

Metro reported today that over 55 per cent of chartered buses and pool cars ferrying schoolchildren in the city don't have valid vehicle papers, including permits.

Adhikari, along with a couple of transport officials and traffic police officers, met some bus and pool car operators to draw a blueprint to make them accountable.

Twenty schoolchildren had a narrow escape yesterday morning when a modified Tata 407 operating as a bus veered off the road and crashed into the concrete barrier of a bridge near RG Kar hospital.

Last week, a bus ferrying students of Loreto House had hit a pedestrian and a traffic signal before ramming into a pillar of the Parama flyover, killing the driver and leaving 11 schoolchildren injured.

The government decided to launch a drive after a fortnight against vehicles ferrying schoolchildren. Five teams of motor vehicle inspectors and traffic sergeants will conduct random checks in various parts of the city but only after schoolchildren have been dropped, an official said.

Since both vehicles involved in the accidents had resoled tyres, the government has decided to mention the tyre's number in the permit document to keep tabs on replacements, if any.

The transport department will set up a team to investigate if transport officials were at fault in connection with the two accidents.