The Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation’s (PCMC) standing committee on Tuesday approved Rs10 crore for the construction of 26 more bus stations for the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) in the PCMC area.
The civic administration tabled the proposal in this regard before the standing committee meeting on an urgent basis. The bus stations will be constructed on Aundh-Ravet BRTS route and Dapodi to Nigdi and Nigdi to Dapodi routes.
Last week the panel had approved Rs7.27 crore for 14 BRTS bus stations on the Sangvi-Kivale BRTS route. The civic officials added that each bus station will cost almost Rs50 lakh. While the proposed Nigdi-Dapodi and Sangvi-Kivale routes are scheduled to become operational by March 2014, the Aundh-Ravet is expected to start in April 2014. The PCMC has asked contractors to speed up the work so that the first two routes could be started on time.
The civic chief along with the civic staff inspected these BRTS routes recently. The construction work is complete, and the work of bus shelters is on. Nigdi-Dapodi route is the first BRTS route introduced by PCMC. The civic body undertook the widening of 13 km stretch on Pune-Mumbai Highway from Nigdi to Dapodi from four to eight lanes around six years ago. There are two lane service roads on both sides of this concrete portion of the highway. One lane is for the BRTS buses while the other is for other vehicular traffic. There are 19 BRTS bus shelters constructed on this stretch.
On the Aundh-Ravet route was delayed due to the land acquisition issue. The PCMC is developing four BRTS routes in the corporation limits under at the first phase of Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). These are Nigdi-Dapodi on Pune-Mumbai highway, Aundh-Ravet Road, Kalewadi phata-Dehu Alandi road and Wakad-Nashik phata. In the second phase, PCMC has proposed Nigdi-Kiwale BRTS route.
Source: dnaindia, Nov’13