The Indian Express             28.11.2013 

PMC to carry out safety audit of Nagar Road BRTS route

Increasing accidents on BRTS routes has forced the Pune Municipal
Corporation to go for a safety audit of the 16-km route on Nagar Road
where the service would be launched soon. “The accidents on existing
BRTS route from Katraj to Hadapsar via Swargate have led to increase in
opposition to its BRTS implementation on other roads. This time the
civic body does not want to face any criticism for poor implementation
of BRTS,” said Vishal Tambe, chairman of the standing committee.

He said an expert from IIT Powai would be appointed for the
safety audit. “All safety concerns on the BRTS route would be studied by
the expert to ensure there are no accidents on the route. The civic
administration have completed most of the infrastructure development
work on the route but will undertake additional work as per the
suggestion of expert for safety purpose,” Tambe said.

The safety audit is likely to be ready in a month and
administration would carry out the neccessary changes in some days, he
said adding that the BRTS would be operational only after all the work
is complete.

The PMC standing committee on Wednesday approved the installation
of automatic doors at the state-of-the-art 22 bus stops on the BRTS
route. “The automatic doors at the bus stop would ensure that commuters
will get into vehicle only after the bus halts at stops,” he said. After
recent accidental deaths due to bikers entering into BRTS route, Mayor
Chanchala Kodre had visited BRTS route and criticised the civic
administration for the poor implementation of BRTS.