Transport body marks easy way for buses

The move is to ensure two buses stop in a line one behind the other and not parallel to each other to make it easier for passengers to alight and board. Buses used to stand a distance away from bus-stops,making people run after them. The pilot project includes the stretch between SNDT and Deccan Corner.

Satish Kulkarni,joint managing director,PMPML,said,“In co-ordination with the civic body,the yellow boxes have been marked. Now,the white boxes will have to be shifted leaving a 15-metre space before and after every bus stop so that there can be proper docking and parking of buses. Buses cannot stop abruptly at the stop,they need some space,so parking spaces will be modified on Karve Road,in the stretch between SNDT and Deccan corner,for the pilot project.”

“When people come on the road for a bus,it usually stops at the centre of the road,instead of the left side. This move is mainly to curb such activities which are dangerous for passengers as well as other vehicles. It reduces carriagewidth and other vehicles then try to overtake the bus. This will further help implement lane discipline at least on this pilot stretch,” said Kulkarni.

In the last week of March,a pilot project for maintaining lane discipline for buses on Karve Road was started. It was then found that close parking was one of the major hurdles in maintaining lane discipline and hence the decision to change the existing markings of the roads. Following the move,along with the Traffic branch of Pune Police,the transport utility had helped impose fines on wrongly parked vehicles on Karve Road.

Officials said that when the rains stop at least for a few days,the work of marking white boxes for parking will also be started. “After the marking of yellow boxes,we will need to change parking spaces of other vehicles. In all the 13 bus stops,between SNDT and Deccan corner,we will paint over the existing white boxes and mark new white boxes to ensure that there is a 15-metre space for buses to turn at bus stops,” said Vijay Shinde,executive engineer,PMC.