Bus Driver Pulls Over Vehicle - All Passengers Safe as Udaipur - Pune Bus Catches Fire

UdaipurTimes, September 25, 2026 | Udaipur Local News: A long-distance sleeper passenger bus plying between Udaipur and Pune caught fire on the expressway. The drivers presence of mind and quick action saved the lives of all the passengers. None of them were injured.

The bus driver was notified of smoke coming out from a section of the bus, and immediately pulled over on the hard shoulder and evacuated the passengers. The incident happened at 7:25am near the Bhatan tunnel on kilometer 16.6 on the Mumbai expressway. The bus was running from Nathdwara (near Udaipur) to Pune. The name of the driver who saved the day for the passengers, as identified by the police, is Chhatrapal Singh Vahia.

After evacuating the passengers, he tried to douse the flames using the fire extinguisher in the bus, but the flames were too heavy for the extinguisher to handle, and eventually engulfed the entire bus. As soon as the authorities were made aware a fire-fighting vehicle of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation and two fire engine trucks from Panvel Municipal Corporation and Khopoli wer also pressed into action.

Interestingly, in another incident just 12 hours before the above, happened at the Yamuna Expressway in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, where another bus caught fire, leading to the death of 9 people on board. This fire was also atrributed to a malfunction in the air conditioning system.