Pune: PMPML chief visits Pimpri to ensure smooth operation on BRTS

The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) and PMPML need help from traffic police to ensure smooth functioning of the BRTS route.

As many as 125 traffic wardens have already been deployed on the route. (Express photo/File)

After the Nigdi-Dapodi Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) saw chaotic traffic in the first five days after its launch, the PMPML administration finally swung into action on Wednesday to ensure that operations on the dedicated track ran smoothly.

PMPML CMD Nayana Gunde visited Pimpri-Chinchwad on Wednesday to observe the functioning of the route and issued a spate of directives to officials. Gunde ordered that if a bus fails on the BRTS route, the operator should be fined. She also instructed depot managers to ensure that only neat and clean buses plied on the BRTS route, and asked officials to install public information systems and boards to display routes at the bus stations.

“PMPML will also deploy four field officers, who will make a few trips from Nigdi to Dapodi every day. They will report to the PCMC and PMPML about problems, if any, and give their suggestions,” said Vijay Bhojne, head of PCMC’s BRTS cell.

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The chief of the transport body said glitches in the Intelligent Transport Management System (ITMS), needed to operate the digital boards at the bus stations, have been resolved. “The ITMS at most bus stations has started functioning,” she said. Of the 36 bus stations, ITMS has started functioning at 24 bus stations, said Bhojne.

Gunde said she has ordered proper docking of buses at bus stations. “It the driver does not dock the bus properly at the bus station, it might cause an accident. I have ordered officials to train and instruct drivers, so that they dock buses properly at bus stations,” she said. The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) and PMPML need help from traffic police to ensure smooth functioning of the BRTS route, said Gunde. “I will write to the Pimpri-Chinchwad police, urging them to help us in the task,” she said.

As many as 125 traffic wardens have already been deployed on the route, said Gunde. “We can’t deploy more than that… the merge in and merge out is creating a lot of problems on the route,” she said. The PMPML chief said there was a need to monitor the BRTS closely . “I will regularly visit Pimpri-Chinchwad to understand the problems…,” she said.

Manoj Dattatrye More

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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