Private school bus strike in Pune results in 5km traffic jams with parents manning signals
A plentitude of cars on the roads today had parents doing the school pick-up and drop routine, resulting in major traffic jams across the city
Chaos prevailed outside schools in Pune as parents took to the streets in their private cars to transport their children to and from their respective schools on Friday.
Traffic jams of upto five km were the order of the day in the 7.30am to 8.30 am period in eastern, central and western Pune, where most of the city’s schools are located and then again, post 3.30 am - when most schools close for the day.
Private bus operators in the city joined a nationwide strike on Friday called by the All India Motor Transport Congress to protesting several issues, including rising fuel prices, GST and insurance rates among others. I
In Undri, the two main roads leading to the Bishop’s Co-ed School were jammed with bumper-to-bumper traffic since 7 am. The impact of the traffic was such that some students were forced to alight two km away from the school and walk, as traffic had come to a complete standstill.
The traffic tailback resulted in jams at NIBM chowk, Jyoti Hotel chowk, Salunke Vihar, and Undri-Mohammadwadi road.
No traffic police were seen in the area in the morning.
In Kalyaninagar, another area with schools, parents got down from their cars and helped to streamline traffic.
“Though school authorities appealed to parents to use two-wheelers, most of were in cars. It was chaos and the police were no where to be seen,” said Shubham Agarwal, who had come to drop his child to school in Kalyaninagar.
Another parent, Anita Vernekar, said that some schools had exams on Friday while they knew it would be chaotic which shows the rigid mentality of the school managements.
The situation in Western Pune was equally chaotic.
Traffic jams could be seen on the roads leading to Loyola’s High School, Pashan, DAV public school and the Orchid school.
Police claim staff on the job
ACP (traffic) Devidas Patil said, “The traffic problem is due to the strike by bus operators. Traffic jumped five times more than the normal which led to congestion. Our men were manning all the main chowks. Perhaps that could be reason behind the traffic jam on connecting and approach roads to the schools ,” he said.
DCP Sheshrao Suryavanshi said that the traffic branch took all the necessary steps to ensure that the parents had to face no inconvenience owing to the strike.