Urban News

Following criticism for its failure in proper implementation of the pilot Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS), the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) general body passed a proposal on Thursday giving powers to the city police to penalize any vehicle other than PMPML buses that run on dedicated BRTS lanes.

According to the proposal, the city police will penalise those getting into BRTS lanes and hand over 50 per cent of the fine collected to the civic body. The city police have also been empowered to slap a penalty on vehicle-owners parking their vehicles in the no-parking zone.

Earlier, the elected representatives of all political parties criticised the civic administration for failure to complete work on the 17 km pilot BRTS route from Katraj to Hadapsar.

Corporator Ujjwal Keskar said, “If the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation can make the BRTS successful, then the PMC should also show positive results.”

“The civic administration has failed in implementing the BRTS properly. The citizens are being cheated by the civic body. They have failed to provide a good public transport system and are instead penalising people for using the BRTS lane,” he said.

BJP corporator Vikas Matkari criticised the civic administration for not purchasing buses for PMPML from the funds under JNNURM.

“The Union Government sanctioned funds long back but the issue of purchasing buses is held up due to differences within the PMC standing committee and the PMPML. The citizens are suffering due to this,” he said.