Pune: PMC To Spend More Than Rs 80 Lakh For Beautification Of BRT Route
Pune, 11th January 2023: Even though the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) route in Pune is on its deathbed and the BRT service is running only at a few distances, the extravagance of the municipal administration continues in the name of improving the BRT route.
After spending Rs 75 lakh for the reconstruction of the Satara BRT route, now Rs 81 lakh will be spent for the beautification of the BRT route. This expenditure has been approved by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).
The BRT route on Satara Road was reconstructed two years ago. About Rs one crore was spent by the PMP administration on this. Keeping in view the traffic congestion, the width of cycle paths and service roads was reduced. Crores of rupees were spent on bus stands. The BRT route was also not started on schedule due to stalling of reconstruction works. The Municipal Corporation had also appointed a consultant for the Satara road BRT. A separate expenditure was also incurred for that. It is a fact that even after wasting hundreds of crores, the municipal corporation could not start this route at full capacity. However, extravagance is going on by the municipal administration in the name of empowering the road. The Standing Committee of the Municipal Corporation has approved an expenditure of Rs 81 lakh for road improvement and beautification at some places.
At present, the BRT route from Swargate to Katraj is the only one running in the city. However, the road work on this route is still not completed. In addition, many works on the BRT route are incomplete. Since these works need to be done immediately, the Road Department of the Municipal Corporation conducted a tender process for this. A provision of Rs one crore has been made in the budget for this purpose. The road department had prepared a preliminary estimate of Rs 99.83 lakh. These works include various types of works including excavation, levelling, concreting, levelling of drainage chamber cover, installation of bollards, and installation of interlocking blocks. For this, the tender was submitted at the lowest price i.e. 22 per cent less than the pre-calculation, i.e. Rs 65 lakh. A total of Rs 81.27 lakh, including GST and other charges, was approved. Satara road is mostly concrete. The BRT track is partly asphalt and concrete.
15 years ago, the BRT route was launched with great fanfare to empower public transport. Pune was the first municipality in the country to start the BRT service. After that, while the BRT service is expanding rapidly in many major cities of the country and a network of more than 1000 kilometres has been created across the country, the BRT in the city has suffered. In the annual budget of the Municipal Corporation, crores of rupees are allocated to propose new BRT routes to empower the BRT routes. However, it is a fact that the BRT service has not expanded by a single kilometre in the last five years.
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