Pune's BRTS still in shambles

After the failure of the ruling Nationalist Congress Party in the Pune Municipal Corporation to pep up the Bus Rapid Transit System, party MP Supriya Sule has now taken up the issue. A press statement issued by her office on Thursday states that Sule wants to interact with NGOs, experts and citizens on the BRTS issue and those interested should put in their suggestions on her website www.supriyasule.com . Sule is looking into the problems in the BRTS project and overall traffic problem of the city. Sule’s intervention comes at the time when, notwithstanding the political opposition to the BRTS in the city, the central government wants the state and the PMC to complete the project. Insisting on the completion of the BRTS projects, the central government has said the BRTS can be implemented by the city or state government either with its own funds or with loan from financial institutions. The PMC administration has announced to complete the BRTS project by March 2012, a deadline set by the central government under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). Now, the central government’s directions have bolstered the administration’s stand. In Pune, the BRTS pilot was launched on December 3, 2006 by then Union minister for urban development Jaipal Reddy. Ten air-conditioned Volvo buses were flagged off on the 6.5-km Swargate-Katraj stretch.However, days after the inauguration, the project drew flak from experts and citizens because of a series of accidents on the route, some fatal. The hasty implementation ballooned into an election issue in February 2007 and the ruling Congress Party lost power in the PMC. However, the ruling NCP, which came to power in 2007, failed to implement the BRTS project and even the pilot route continues to be in shambles.