The Times of India       05.01.2011

PUNE: The standing committee of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) on Tuesday approved a proposal to implement the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) on 27 more roads in the city at the cost of Rs 98 crore. Prominent among the selected roads are Tilak road, Bajirao road, Shivaji road, Fergusson college and Jungali Maharaj roads.

"The total length of the BRTS will be about 101 kilometre. In the first phase, it will be implemented on roads which have already been widened to 36 metres. Such roads will have dedicated BRTS while those which cannot be widened up to 36 metres will have mixed BRTS," said standing committee chairman Arvind Shinde on Tuesday, following a meeting of the standing committee.

"As soon as the infrastructure work is completed, the BRTS will be launched," said Shinde who did not set a deadline for completion of the project.

Leader of the house in the PMC Nilesh Nikam said the Union and state governments have together given Rs 548 crore for the BRTS which are already used by the PMC for road widening and development of other related infrastructure.

"The state and centre together have to further release Rs 133 crore for the BRTS. Road widening of Nagar road, Vishrantwadi, parts of Sinhagad road, Paud and Baner roads is completed and the BRTS will be implemented here on priority," said Nikam.

"Each of the specified road which is 36 meter broad will have seven meter dedicated lane for buses and 0.90 inch cement dividers with 0.30 meter high iron railings. The 101 km BRTS route will have 247 bus stops. Work on this infrastructure will start immediately," said Nikam.

The plan to start the second phase of the BRTS comes at a time when the PMC is already under flak for not being able to complete the pilot project on the 16.5 km stretch from Katraj to Swargate and Swargate to Hadapsar.

The pilot project was inaugurated with much fanfare in December 2006. However, three years later, the project still remains incomplete. It lacks in basic features such as continuous dedicated lanes, proper pedestrian facilities, off-board ticketing facilities, bus-stations, level boarding facilities and frequency of buses.

"The PMC will implement the project with full efficiency since it is the need of the hour. Also, new buses will hit the road soon which will reduce two-wheeler traffic," said Arvind Shinde. Nikam echoed Shinde's views and said that as per the central government's norms there was no other option before the PMC but to implement the scheme as the PMC has received funds for the same.

The BJP and Shiv Sena opposed the proposal in the standing committee while the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) abstained from voting. NCP- Congress voted for the proposal.

Mukta Tilak, BJP leader in the PMC, said the PMC has failed to implement the pilot project and now it wants to go ahead with the second phase without detailed planning. Babu Wagaskar of the MNS said that his party wants the PMC to avoid blunders' committed during the pilot phase.