Motorcycles are a big part of student life at Maulana Azad National
Institute of Technology (MANIT), Bhopal. An easy way to get around campus, they
act as a status symbol and help the owners make friends and become popular
amongst their batchmates. Students also use them for stress-free travel to the
city, going to coaching institutes for CAT, GMAT & GRE classes, which are
located 6-7 km away from campus.

With many students utilizing motorcycles to get from hostels to
lecture halls, problems have risen, and one of the concerns is the increasing
number of accidents. Several factors have led to accidents inside the campus:
rash driving, construction material lying on the roads, street lights not
working, poor road conditions, etc. The
absence of designated bike lanes at the MANIT campus causes a lot of confusion,
and dozens of near-accidents and actual accidents have already taken place. Students
go through financial loss, physical and mental torture, and waste of time that
could be spent in academics. A dire need to discourage or ban two wheelers from
the campus has been expressed.

Anshumann Yadav, a final
year Mechanical Engineering student at MANIT, says, “I met with an accident in
2014 inside the campus, due to the other driver’s negligence. Since I wasn’t
wearing a helmet, I got 5-6 stitches on my face. Students are here to study, so
when they meet with an accident they lose focus from studies, and their parents
also get unduly worried.”

Another final year
student of Chemical Engineering, Swati Solanki, says, “All motor vehicles
should be banned in the campus. Though we have a big campus, it is accessible
by bicycles and walking. Students also don’t follow rules – there are generally
3-4 students on a two-seater motorcycle.”

Prof. Yogendra Kumar,
Dean of Student Affairs, MANIT says, “Accidents don’t take place regularly. But
letting even 2-3 accidents happen is wrong. We have sent a proposal to the
Director to ban motorcycles inside the campus.”

Rohan, another student
at MANIT, has this to say: “I personally feel bikes should be banned only after
sufficient provisions to commute within the campus are made. MANIT is spread
over 650 acres. The closest hostel may only be 500m away, but the last hostel
is over 2 km away from the main campus.”

Prof. Kumar adds,
“Provisions have been made to run buses within the campus, and to MP Nagar (Bhopal’s
coaching area) & New Market. These are the two locations which students
frequent most.”

Anshumann continues,
“Those students who are not supporting the ban have not seen the negative side
of vehicular movement in the campus. There have been two accidents recently. In
the first, a student fractured his leg and missed the mid-semester exams. And in
the other, a student is seriously injured.”

A number of students are
day scholars, living off campus, and commute using their own vehicles. Faculty members
living on campus with their families also have two- or four-wheelers. How, if
it is imposed, will the ban be implemented keeping these constraints in mind is
an important question.