Fast track to dead end

While a vehicular explosion is choking virtually every city in the country, Pune, because of a few peculiar factors, is having a particularly rough time riding out the wave. 8216;8216;There is one motorised vehicle for every 2.5 persons in Pune,8217;8217; states Maj-Gen retd S C N Jatar, traffic expert and member of the Pune Municipal Corporation8217;s PMC traffic mobility committee.

With a population of 42 lakh 2001 census figures for the Pune Metropolitan Region, that translates into a lot of vehicles for 1252 km of roads. Estimates put the current figure at 14 lakh, of which 74 per cent are two-wheelers; each year adds another 90,000. The fallout: traffic jams, chaotic and indisciplined movement, accidents and deaths.

SLEEPING POLICEMEN?

So what are the cops doing while traffic goes haywire? If they pass the buck, it would seem they are quite justified. 8216;8216;In contrast to Mumbai, which has one policeman for every 500 vehicles, Pune has one for 2100 vehicles,8217;8217; says Chandmal Parmar, leading accident-prevention activist and member of the National Road Safety Council. 8216;8216;The strength of the traffic police rose from 424 in 1991 to 474 in 2003. But in these 12 years, vehicular traffic increased exponentially; from eight per cent of the traffic in 1991, two-wheelers now comprise 74 per cent.8217;8217;

Inadequate policing translates into traffic indiscipline at the best of times. Add to that overloaded, potholed roads and the result is sheer chaos.

THE MONEY, HONEY

Though Pune is the seventh largest city in the country, it is very much the third city in the state, and so loses out on funds and attention. 8216;8216;Even Nagpur gets more attention since the state assembly meets there,8217;8217; points out P G Sardesai, town planner. The fallout is evident in the slip-shod road repair work, restricted police recruitment, and general road infrastructure, all of which contribute towards out-of-control traffic.

THE WAY THE

LAND LIES

Geography, too, has a role to play in Pune8217;s seemingly insurmountable traffic headaches. While the PMC has taken up road-widening in a big way, it has little scope for the exercise in the established commercial hubs the peths in the heart of the city. There has been no concerted effort to shift the traditional centres of business to the outskirts, so the bulk of the rush hour traffic has to negotiate the narrow wada roads 8212; built for pedestrians, bullock carts and tongas 8212; with their four- and two-wheelers.

CAR, NO BAR

Because of its age-old status as an educational centre, Pune now has a student population estimated at 1 lakh. A large section of it is dependent on personal vehicles for transport. In addition, the thriving automobile and IT industry fuel purchasing power and the need for independent mobility. All of which means more vehicles for Pune8217;s roads in view of an unreliable public transport system.

BUS KARO

Like the roads, Pune8217;s public transport, too, is proving unequal to the pressure situation. Of the 850 buses in the Pune Municipal Transport8217;s fleet, 238 are not fit to ply on the roads. Nearly 100 are more than 15 years old, 150 more have seen more than a dozen years in service. Keeping the old buses on the road is not even a profitable enterprise from the PMT. Says Maj-Gen Jatar, 8216;8216;The cost of running a PMT bus is Rs 19.98/km, but it earns only Rs 13.52/km. The PMT covers 1,60,000 km a day and incurs a loss of Rs 10 lakh daily.8217;8217;

THE ROAD AHEAD

That was the bad news. The good news is that local NGOs and activists have woken up to the issue, and are busy brainstorming ways out of the vicious circle. 8216;8216;Instead of the PMC building or widening more and more roads to accommodate more and more vehicles 8212; a never-ending process 8212; we have to look to maximum utilisation of the existing roads through proper traffic management,8217;8217; says Sujit Patwardhan, noted environmentalist and founder of Parisar, a green NGO. 8216;8216;Forget the state government, if the PMC has the will, the PMT can be the answer.8217;8217;

Maj-Gen Jatar agrees. 8216;8216;Strengthening the public transport system is the only answer, but politicians with vested interests are destroying all efforts to overhaul the PMT,8217;8217; he alleges. 8216;8216;Besides the bus service, several arterial and downtown roads need to be overhauled, one-ways, parking charges, no-parking and pedestrian-only zones introduced. But corporators oppose all such proposals.8217;8217;

But with vehicle pressures unlikely to slow down, rejecting change could put Pune on the fast track to the land of no return.