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This is an archive article published on August 25, 2018

Nigdi-Dapodi: Third BRTS comes with chaotic traffic, confused agencies, hassled commuters

The BRTS was officially launched at 12.30 pm, when Pimpri Mayor Rahul Jadhav flagged off the first vehicle on the route, at around 12.30 pm.

Nigdi-Dapodi: Third BRTS comes with chaotic traffic, confused agencies, hassled commuters A PMPML bus tries to move into the dedicated BRTS track at Kasarwadi. (Express photo by Manoj More)

The third Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) between Nigdi and Dapodi, which was expected to ease the traffic situation in the area, did anything but that on Friday, when the much-delayed BRTS track finally became operational. Utter chaos prevailed and commuters had a harrowing time due to lack of planning and coordination between the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited and Pune Traffic Police.

The BRTS was officially launched at 12.30 pm, when Pimpri Mayor Rahul Jadhav flagged off the first vehicle on the route, at around 12.30 pm. Deputy Mayor Sachin Chinchwade, Standing Committee chairperson Mamata Gaikwad, Municipal Commissioner Shravan Hardikar and PMPML chairperson Nayana Gunde were also present at the event.

However, problems soon surfaced at Akurdi, Chinchwad and Pimpri Chowk, when pedestrians tried to cross the road, ignoring the buzzing traffic. The traffic logjam was worse outside the PCMC headquarters due to the ongoing Metro work and the lack of a dedicated track.

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The stretch between Nashik Phata and Kasarwadi also saw its own share of chaos, with traffic clogging up at short intervals. Near the Marshall company, vehicles kept crossing over from the express lane and on to the service road, even as buses tried to squeeze into the dedicated track, creating more chaos. Pune Metro project officials didn’t take any steps — such as providing barricades or helping manage traffic — to ease the situation.

Several buses used the service road as the drivers either failed to notice the dedicated track or could not reach the track due to the traffic congestion. The vehicular quagmire between Dapodi and Phugewadi kept getting worse as the day wore on.

PCMC officials admitted that there were problems on the BRTS launch day, and said they didn’t receive sufficient support from the traffic police and PMPML. “We had problems… mainly at Akurdi and Kasarwadi. The traffic police did not provide adequate manpower. It will take some time for things to settle down, “said Vijay Bhojne, in charge of PCMC’s BRTS department.

Bhojne said many buses skipped the BRTS track entirely as it seemed PMPML had failed to inform its drivers about the launch of the track. Denying the charge, PMPML chief Nayana Gunde said, “We have given proper training to our drivers. The merge in, merge out could be creating problems for drivers, It will take a couple of days for drivers to get used to the new situation.

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Pimpri Chinchwad police spokesperson Satish Patil said they were facing a manpower crunch and could not provide enough police personnel on Friday. “But PCMC officials told us that they will manage the situation with traffic wardens, “ he said, adding that from Saturday, they would provide more police personnel.

Traffic Police inspector Arun Ombase, however, said the problem was likely to persist as work on Pune Metro project was also going on simultaneously.

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.   Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were  asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.     Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More


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