Scrap BRTS or not? Pune civic body to appoint agency to study traffic on Nagar Road before taking decision

Sunil Tingre, NCP legislator of the area, has been demanding the removal of BRTS, saying it was adding to the traffic problems of Nagar Road. Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar called a meeting on the issue last week in which the administration said the BRTS will be strengthened to remove the traffic issue instead of scrapping it.

“There is no need to remove the BRTS in haste. The PMC will appoint an agency to study the traffic situation of the area and then take a decision. Meanwhile, the encroachment on the road will be removed to ease the traffic situation,” said Municipal Commissioner Vikram Kumar, who visited the site recently.

The PMC has now decided that the remaining stretch of the BRTS will be made ready for public transport buses with the provision of security personnel at bus stops, warden for traffic regulation, CCTV monitoring and regular cleanliness.

Former deputy mayor Siddarth Dhende said he would protest if the PMC removed the BRTS. “The civic body should strengthen the BRTS. I will take to the street if it is scrapped,” he said.

The PMC started the BRTS on a 7.5-km stretch of the Nagar Road in 2016, but part of it was unused over the past three years due to work on the elevated Metro project with pillars in the middle of the road. The work also led to three of the ten bus stops on the BRTS lane being removed. The Metro work is now nearing completion.

Earlier, NCP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Vandana Chavan had opposed the plan of scrapping the BRTS lane.

Qaneez Sukhrani, convenor of the Nagar Road citizens forum, said “The BRTS was a burden for everyone, and that increased when the Metro work started.”