Pune's pilot BRTS route is almost ready :PMC

The 17-km long Katraj-Swargate-Hadapsar pilot corridor of the bus rapid transit system (BRTS) is ready, barring a few stretches where the land is entangled in a legal process, said the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) . It may be noted that municipal commissioner Mahesh Zagade had assured a Congress delegation in December 2009, that the pilot BRTS route, formally launched on December 3, 2006, will be completed with all its features before April 1, 2010. Civic traffic planner Srinivas Bonala said, “The PMC has fully utilised the Rs 103-crore fund given by the central government for the pilot corridor of the BRTS. Although work on around nine stretches is pending, because of land acquisition problems — with the related cases pending in court. However, this has not prevented us from putting in place the infrastructure on the remaining parts of the corridor.” He said six terminals on the corridor were ready, while works on other associated projects — such as provision of cycle tracks, footpaths, service roads, streetlights, traffic signals, road signages, bus shelters and junction improvements — are in progress. After the project drew flak from various quarters over the lack of certain infrastructure, the civic authorities admitted that the original designs did not have provisions for cycle tracks and footpaths, even though these are the basic requirements of the BRTS. It may be noted that the BRTS is funded by the Centre as part of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. Bonala said, “Maintenance is a continuous process and we are faced with problems like vandalising of signals, damaging of footpaths, wrong parking, entering of other vehicles on the route, among other issues.” Meanwhile, notwithstanding the rejection by the standing committee, the civic administration is hopeful that PMC’s general body will approve the proposal to rope in a private agency to track movement of vehicular traffic, using an intelligent transportation system (ITS), and impose fines on violators.