July 30, 2009 3:45:49 am
Even as the Pune Municipal Corporation claims improvement in roads and traffic system,the environment status report (ESR) of the civic body has revealed that the number of accidental deaths and seriously injured in accidents on city roads have increased by around 15 per cent in 2008 compared to 2007.
According to the ESR for 2008-09,the vehicle population has gone up by seven per cent in the past year,with an equal growth in number of two-wheelers and four-wheelers. The two-wheeler population has gone up to 8.07 lakh while four-wheelers have risen to 2.57 lakh.
While attributing the accidents to increase in vehicle population,shortage of parking and traffic system,the report says that the total number of accidents in the city has reduced from 2,347 in 2007 to 2,270 in 2008,but the accidental deaths have increased to 477 in 2008 from 414 the year before. Similarly,the seriously injured in accidents were 634 in 2008 as against 462 in 2007,it says.
The report says that only 12.2 per cent of the commuters use public transport while the maximum numbers of 37.2 per cent commuters opt for two-wheelers.
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The increase in number of buses in the PMPML fleet has raised the average buses per lakh commuters from 25.47 buses in 2007 to 29.05 buses in 2008,but less than 40 buses per lakh commuters as suggested by the Central Institute of Road Transport (CIRT).
It also goes on to say that the accidental deaths on the BRTS route has come down. On Satara Road,13 people died in 2007 while only 6 died in 2008. As many as 21 died on Solapur Road in 2007,while it was 17 in 2008.
The report said the civic body is planning to increase BRTS routes,footpaths and introduce cycle tracks to improve public transport system,besides introducing Metro Rail.
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