Indian Express 19.12.2009
Cycle tracks, off BRTS routes, too
The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) will soon come out with guidelines on introducing footpaths and cycle tracks on non-Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) routes. FC Road and JM Road will be the first to get the facility. Cycle tracks and clearly demarcated footpaths have already been introduced on the BRTS routes.
The city is to have 117-km cycle track along the BRTS through the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). “The PMC will work on expanding the network of cycle track,” said Vivek Kharwadkar, PMC Additional City Engineer (Roads).
Last year, the civic body had roped in Netherlands-based Interface for Cycling Expertise (I-ce) to promote the use of bicycles in the city. “The width of the roads in the city vary from six metre to 60 metre and it is not possible to make available all amenities across the city. The civic administration has decided for the first time to have a standardised policy to make available various services on the city roads,” said Kharwadkar.
Citizens expect that all city roads should have facility like service road, cycle track and footpath, but this is not possible practically, he said. “A provision is made in the budget for development of these services on various city roads, but the money is lying unused as the work cannot be carried out due to lack of sufficient space. These new guidelines will be reffered to for making budgetary provision for development of the city roads,” Kharwadkar said.
The road development policy would take into account the benchmark set up by Mass Urban Transport Policy for making available the services of footpath, cycle track and service roads, he added.
Accordingly, the PMC has already started the process of introducing various services on the city roads. “The FC Road and JM Road are sufficiently wide to accommodate footpath and cycle track. The work for introducing cycle track on the two main roads would begin soon,” he said. “The city traffic police department has been on the forefront, urging the civic administration to introduce provisions for non-motorised transport (NMT) on the two roads that have been recently transformed for one-way traffic,” he added. DCP (Traffic) Manoj Patil said the traffic police is committed to promotion of NMT in the city.
