E-Paper
Scrapping BRTS in Pune will increase congestion, travel time: ITDP
The ITDP carried out the survey after the Yerawada traffic police division earlier this month submitted a letter to PMC demanding that the Sangamwadi BRTS system be scrapped
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Recently, the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) Pune conducted a survey of the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) and found, among others, that scrapping of the BRTS system is not the answer to Pune’s traffic woes. The ITDP carried out the survey after the Yerawada traffic police division earlier this month submitted a letter to the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) demanding that the Sangamwadi BRTS system be scrapped and other vehicles be allowed in the corridor and the Pune Platform for Collaborative Response (PPCR), backed by Wadgaonsheri MLA Sunil Tingre, demanded that the PMPML shut down the entire BRTS project.
According to the ITDP, the BRTS corridors in Pune are 60 km long, which is equivalent to an area of 0.42 square kilometre. Shutting down BRTS lanes or opening them to other vehicles will lead to more congestion and will increase travel time. Pranjal Kulkarni, ITDP manager, said, “Today, PMPML BRTS buses ferry nearly 8 to 10 lakh passengers daily, equivalent to having nearly 10 lakh two-wheelers off the roads. The BRTS has not only scaled up the city to reduce congestion and travel time but has also reduced 2 lakh tonne of CO2 emissions and saved 200 tonne litre of petrol and Rs20 crore in fuel costs per day.”
“The BRTS has 60 km of road length, which is equivalent to an area of 0.42 square kilometre. Shutting down BRTS lanes or opening BRTS lanes to other vehicles will lead to more congestion and an increase in travel time as the buses ferry 70 passengers in 30 square metre of road space while two-wheelers ferry only 30 passengers and four-wheelers only eight passengers in the same space. The buses, despite ferrying 15% of the population, already occupy less road space and taking that dedicated road space away is unjustified in terms of the right to mobility. Shutting down BRTS lanes will not solve traffic problems rather will discourage private vehicle users from shifting to public transport in the near future. Traffic enforcement authorities need to understand that the idea is to move as many people efficiently, not vehicles,” Kulkarni said.
The Pune BRTS was launched in 2016 as the Rainbow BRTS, with key learnings from the 2006 pilot BRTS. Currently, the Rainbow BRTS has over 60 km of dedicated corridors and over 1,700 BRTS-compliant buses.
Kulkarni further said, “Blaming the BRTS and public transport for congestion is a very short-sighted, car-centric approach one can take. Today, the discussion is on removing BRTS, tomorrow there will be cries to remove the cycle track, and soon we will debate on footpaths and so on. We need to understand that there is only limited space on the street and we can cater to only a limited number of vehicles. Such moves will only act as magnets in increasing the number of vehicles on roads, damaging the city even further. What we need is implementation of the walk-cycle policy, effective parking management and strict enforcement; all prioritising public transport and thus creating a people-centric Pune.”
Whereas even regular passengers on the BRTS routes are not in favour of completely removing these corridors. Snehal Gandhare, a daily commuter on the Sangamwadi BRTS route, said, “I travel daily by PMPML buses along the Sangamwadi route and it is faster for us to reach office during rush hour. Pune was the pioneer in terms of starting the BRTS service and we cannot simply scrap it. Lakhs of passengers depend on it to reach school or college or office on time.”
