'Pune's BRT service to be operational from March 31'

Despite several questions being raised by citizen groups and traffic experts the civic body claims that the new public transport system is on track to begin operations by March Sources say infrastructure for the first phase of the Bus Rapid Transit BRT would be completed in two months and the PMC has assured that its ambitious project would become operational by March 31u00a0Besides the civic officials have said they have learnt from the mistakes they made during the pilot project and that the transport system would be successfully implemented this time Men at work The infrastructure work for the first phase of the BRT goes on in full swing at Alandi road Civic body officials say the entire work will be completed in two months PicKrunal Gosavi The project The two corridors mdash Waraje to Kharadi 22km and Kothrud Depot to Vishrantwadi 17 km which includes Nagar Road and Alandi Road mdash will have dedicated bus lanes stateofthe art bus stops equipped with intelligent traffic system and an on board ticketing systemu00a0All bus stops would have electronic display boards providing uptodate information on buses ldquoAll the norms of an ideal BRT would be fulfilled in this project Our responsibility is to prepare the infrastructure after which PMPML would be tasked with the implementation of number of buses types of buses and route frequencyrdquo said a BRT officialincharge on condition of anonymityu00a0 Questions galore With the PMC geared up with its venture commuters and traffic experts are questioning several aspects of the project They claim that the project will meet the same fate as that of the pilot project which was conducted from Katraj to Hadapsar in 2006 NGOs traffic experts PMP Pravasi Manch and representatives of PMP commuters have raised several questions and are demanding transparency of the project No communication ldquoTill now the PMC or the PMPML have not made known any information about the implementation of project The pilot project failed due to poor planning and implementation We have surveyed the current work status They are constructing only bus stops We have not found any dedicated bus lanes We have conveyed our apprehensions by writing letters to the concerned authorities but have not received a reply yetrdquo said Jugal Rathi president Pune Pravasi Manch Unsuitable buses ldquoFor the BRT right sided door buses are essential Currently we have only 300 such buses Almost 75 per cent PMPML buses have doors on the left side which cannot be used for the systemrdquo said Ranjeet Gadgeel civic activist u00a0ldquoBefore implementation of the project PMC officials had said that they would conduct public outreach programs to convey the idea of BRT Also the PMPML has not even organised workshop for driversconductors who would be key operators of the systemrdquo he added Safety concerns ldquoBoth the corridors Nagar road and Alandi road do not constitute complete routes For instance no bus route originates at Yerawada from where the Nagar road BRT corridor commences Thus the BRT buses will ply on mixed traffic lanes and enter or exit the dedicated BRT lane at Yerawada This means the opening of the doors will shift from right to left and vice versa u00a0Opening the door on the wrong side would be unsafe for commuters Safe road crossings for pedestrians and commuters are of prime importance especially in view of the central bus stopsrdquo said Prashant Inamdar of Pedestrian First u00a0 The other side Replying to the issues raised by the citizen groups Anil Burase chief engineer PMPML said ldquoAll the new buses that would be inducted in PMPML will have doors on both sides Both side door buses are suitable for BRT and nonBRT routes too Moreover in the next five months PMPML will induct 500 additional twinopening buses which can be utilised for the BRT systemrdquo While Pranjali Deshpande program leader of ITDP the advisory committee of PMC and PMPML said ldquoThe PMC has started conducting public awareness programmes Officials have begun conducting meetings with Mohalla committees that are located on the two BRT routes Before the project become operational essential information will be disseminated to residentsrdquo