Bhopal ISBT Bus Fire: 7 to 8 Verma Travels Buses Hit, 4 to 5 Destroyed; Rs 4 to 5 Crore Loss Estimated, No Injuries

What happened

On the evening of Sunday, 25 October 2026, parked buses caught fire at the Inter-State Bus Terminal (ISBT) in the Govindpura area of Bhopal. PTI says the fire brigade got the call at 7.18 pm; eyewitnesses quoted by Dainik Jagran put the start at about 7 pm, after a loud bang. All the affected buses belonged to one private operator, Verma Travels, and were parked empty before their night departures to Ahmedabad, Surat, Pune, Nagpur and other places. No passenger, driver or staff member was inside, and no injury was reported. Updated 26 October 2026.

The fire started in one bus (the owner says two or three) and moved to the buses parked close beside it. Black smoke could be seen from about a kilometre away, according to Dainik Jagran. Police and administration staff cleared and cordoned the area. Dainik Bhaskar reports that oil tankers were parked near the burning buses, and a Free Press Journal account says eyewitnesses saw some tankers driven to safety, so the fire could have grown much worse. ISBT staff also moved other parked buses away.

How many buses, and how big was the loss

The count is not settled. PTI says seven buses, of which four were completely burnt. Naidunia, Dainik Jagran, Dainik Bhaskar and ETV Bharat say eight, with four gutted and four half-burnt. The Free Press Journal says five gutted and three partly damaged, out of more than 50 buses at the terminal. Early reports said three to six buses. We use seven to eight buses, four to five destroyed, and mark it as contested.

The loss figure of Rs 4 to 5 crore comes from the operator, Deepak Verma, as quoted by Dainik Bhaskar, ETV Bharat and the Free Press Journal; NewsNation says about Rs 5 crore. It is the owner’s own estimate, not an assessment by the police or the fire department, and PTI gives no figure. Trips to Surat, Ahmedabad, Nagpur and other routes were cancelled, and the owner says about 50 to 60 buses leave the terminal every hour, so many passengers were affected.

The fire response

Bhopal Municipal Corporation fire officer Saurabh Patel told PTI that more than eight fire tenders and four water bowsers worked at the spot and brought the fire under control in about an hour. Other reports give different numbers: six tenders (Free Press Journal, which names the fire officer as Pankaj Kumar), ten (Dainik Bhaskar, Dainik Jagran), and 15 to 20 (the owner, as quoted by ETV Bharat). Dainik Jagran says the work lasted about one and a half hours. Eyewitnesses spoke of blasts from the burning buses, which added to the panic.

Naidunia raised one more point. A municipal fire station is about 100 metres from the terminal, yet the owner says the first vehicle came about 15 minutes after the call. The fire officer disputes this: he says the ISBT station’s vehicle was on duty at a fair (mela) at that time, was sent as soon as the call came, and reached in about 10 minutes. We cannot settle this from the reports. We can say that in a fire between parked buses, the first few minutes decide how many vehicles are lost.

Cause and inquiry

No official cause has been announced. The fire officer told PTI that a short circuit in a bus may have caused it. Naidunia reports that the owner’s staff first told police about a quarrel with some people earlier that evening and suspected they had set the fire, then said the cause was a matter for investigation, and later said it was a short circuit. Govindpura Assistant Commissioner of Police Aditi Bhavsar said police are checking whether the fire was accidental or deliberate, and are going through the footage of more than half a dozen CCTV cameras at the terminal (Dainik Jagran, Free Press Journal). Owner Deepak Verma said he has no enmity with anyone. NavBharat Live, in a report of the morning of 26 October, says the police have registered an FIR and have started an investigation, that Govindpura police station in-charge Awadhesh Tomar said the cause is not yet clear and the insurance side will also be examined, and that a forensic (FSL) examination is expected to help find the cause. That report gives no FIR number, sections or accused, and we could not find it in any other outlet, so treat the registration as reported by one outlet and not confirmed. We found no report of an arrest or a fire department report, and we do not name or describe anyone as a suspect.

Why this matters

Bus terminals in many Indian cities park diesel buses nose to tail for the night, often with little gap between them, and fuel tankers or other vehicles close by. A fire in one bus can then reach the next within minutes. We saw the same pattern in the Mumbai Anik bus depot fire, where 12 buses were destroyed, and in the Lucknow EV showroom fire, where 17 vehicles were gutted by a suspected short circuit. The Delhi Airport bus fire asks what would have happened if passengers had been on board; here the buses were empty, and that was luck, not planning. Bhopal’s own city safety guide lists the local numbers and fire risks.

Lessons for readers

• Bus owners and terminal managers: leave a clear gap between parked buses, enough for a fire tender and for a driver to move a bus out. Do not park fuel tankers or drums next to a bus bay.
• Keep a driver or attendant on site and keep extinguishers in the bay. A bus caught in its first minute can often be saved or moved; an unattended row cannot.
• Check bus wiring and batteries at every service. Loose cables, overloaded AC and lighting circuits and badly fitted add-ons are common starting points. See our note on small electrical faults that cause big fires.
• Passengers and bystanders: if you hear a bang or see smoke from a parked bus, walk away at once, keep away from other buses and tankers, and do not stop to film. Call 112 or 101 and give the terminal name and bay. Our emergency numbers guide explains which number to call.
• Authorities: know the real response time to a terminal. A station near the terminal helps only if its vehicle is free; see our note on fire response distance.
• If someone is burnt, cool the burn under running water for 20 minutes and get them to a hospital. See our first aid guide.

For long-distance travel, read also how to get out fast in a bus fire and the parking-area advice in meter box and parking-area fires.

What is still not known

The cause is not established: a short circuit, an earlier dispute and a deliberate act were all mentioned, and none is confirmed. The number of buses (seven or eight), the number destroyed (four or five), the fire tenders used and the first-vehicle delay differ by report. The Rs 4 to 5 crore loss is the operator’s estimate. We do not know the sections or accused in the FIR that one outlet reports, what the CCTV footage shows, or whether the terminal’s parking and fire arrangements will be reviewed. We will update this page when police or the fire department give a finding. Last checked 26 October 2026, 12.30 pm IST.