A hate-to-awe BRTS story

Immediately after its launch in 2006,political parties had hit the streets demanding the scrapping of the BRTS. The improvements and modifications made by the PMC in the BRTS infrastructure has helped reduce the accident rate on the stretch.

“The Satara Road from Swargate to Katraj is among the busiest and travelling on it was a nightmare with long jams on the congested road. Most citizens preferred to use their own vehicles as public transport system was poor and it used to take them over half an hour to travel the small stretch. Now,there has been a change and dedicated bus BRTS lanes have improved public transport,” said Swati Pangare,a resident of Katraj who commutes by BRTS daily.

She says the BRTS has reduced travel time till Swargate,but her further journey to Pashan takes more time. “I wish the BRTS is extended to Pashan so that travel time would be cut further,” Pangare says.

Vijay Dhamdhere says he uses his own vehicle to commute to the office and back,but the BRTS has eased pressure on his family as other members are able to travel safely and faster by public transport. “I had to drop my wife to office and children to school as the public transport system was poor and there were safety concerns. Now,I have no problem allowing them to travel by public transport as frequency of buses has increased and there has been a reduction in travel time,” he said adding there is still scope for improvement and there should be a safe means for citizens to cross the road and get to the bus-stops in the middle of the road.

PMC Traffic Planner Srinivas Bonala said the BRTS was getting a good response on the pilot route as citizens are are saving travel time and there is increased frequency of bus services.

“This was a pilot project and had to face a lot of hurdles before making it efficient enough to meet the needs of the people,” he said adding the administration would continue to make improvements as per need.

MNS corporator Vasant More said he had to constantly push for speeding up development in the region. “I personally visit sites of development projects to ensure the work is of good quality and is not delayed for unnecessary reasons,” he said.

More said that the administration had to be constantly taken to task for improving the BRTS infrastructure and development of bus depot.