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.