On Nigdi-Hadapsar route,a seat crunch

Thirty-year-old J T Bhole,an accoutants assistant,travels to Hadapsar everyday from Vallabhnagar. For the over-an-hour journey,she struggles to find a seat. Reason: the Nigdi-bus is jampacked every day and on every trip.

Like Bhole,there are scores of commuters who travel to Pune station,Pune Camp,Hadapsar area every day. Similarly,there are hundreds of commuters who travel to Pune station area,Khadki,Pimpri-Chinchwad,every day. On both ways,the Nigdi-Hadapsar buses are packed to capacity with several commuters hanging on the footboard. Women passengers suffer the most due to constantl jostling and pushing. Then there are those commuters who refuse to get up from the seats despite they being reserved for women.That’s not all. The drivers and conductors compound the situation by stopping the buses at every stop thereby adding more passengers. “There is a mad scramble in the Nigdi-Hadpasar bus to catch a seat. Every time a commuter gets up to get down from the bus,other commuters rush forward to grab the seat. And in the process,it sparks arguments and even fights,” says Kavita Deshpande,a regular traveller by the Nigdi-Hadpasar bus. The Pune Mahanagar Privahan Mahamandal Ltd (PMPML) has put 15 buses on this route. These buses make 148 trips from Nigdi-Hadapsar-Nigdi in a day. PMPML spokesperson Deepak Pardeshi says there is one bus every 15 minutes leaving from Nigdi and Hadapsar. However,commuters say considering the status of the bus on every trip,there is need to introduce additional buses. “If the buses are packed on every trip,there is no reason why additional buses should not be introduced,” says Prashant Inamdar,convenor of Pedestrians First. “Instead of a large number of buses terminating at Pune station,the same buses could go up to Hadapsar. This means Hadapsar is covered and Pune station area too is taken care of,” he says. Commuters also advocate that only passengers beyond Pune station area should be allowed to catch the bus. “The reason why Hadapsar buses are jam-packed is commuters between Nigdi and Pune station are allowed to board. The conductor should specifically state that only commuters beyond Pune station area should board the bus. There are so many buses to Pune station,why should commuters en route board the Hadapsar bus. This will automatically lighten the load on Hadapsar bus,” says Inamdar.