Traffic cops moot decentralisation of 3 MSRTC bus stands

According to the proposal,eight new bus stands are scheduled to come up at Katraj,Hadapsar,Kothrud,Sangvi,Baner,Nashik Road,Nigdi and Nagar Road.

Currently the city has only three bus stands — near Pune station,Shivajinagar and Swargate,with 2,877 buses plying daily. Pune Divisional controller,Ashok Jadhav said,“The earlier proposal to shift the existing bus stands to the outskirts of the city is not feasible as it will cause a lot of inconvenience to passengers. The basic idea of having a bus stand in the city is that it should be accessible to all. As of now,we have not taken any decision on the matter as any such order in this regard can be only given by the head office.”

He added that a large number of state transport buses from Karnataka also come to the Swargate depot,but most of them do not have permits as only a fixed number of buses from other states are allowed in our depots.

“We have written on several occasions to the police and the RTO,but no action has been initiated against them so far. The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court had ordered that there cannot be any private bus pick up or booking points in a 200m radius of bus stands,but this directive has also not been implemented. As for congestion,if PMC and the police take action against encroachments on the footpaths near the bus stands,a lot of traffic problems can be solved.”