Private vehicle owners protest, visitors stranded at Sinhagad fort

The agitation resulted in buses not being able to ply up and down the ghat section for around 3 hours

Jigar Hindocha

Pune:

Visitors in E-buses were stuck at the Sinhagad fort for three hours on Sunday as private vehicle owners staged a protest against the government decision to ban their vehicles to the fort.

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The administration started the E-buses services on May 2, while also prohibiting operation of the private buses on the fort.

Talking about the incident, PMPML spokesperson on the condition of anonymity said, “Many visitors at the Sinhagad fort got stuck from early afternoon till 4 PM on Sunday due to an agitation by private vehicle owners who have been banned now from transporting passengers.”

“The agitation was led by an organisation called Shiv Premi Sanghatna. The agitation resulted in buses not being able to ply up and down the ghat section for around 3 hours.

Visitors were stranded both at the fort and near the parking lot below. The situation has been brought under control,” he added.

PMPML organizes 25 buses for visitors on weekends while 10 buses are operated during the weekend.

Kushal Sawala, a resident of Sadashiv Peth who visited the fort with the family said, “Many people were stuck at the top and earlier we thought buses had a technical issue but then we realised that the strike was called by private vehicle owners. We were expecting to reach back home by 6 pm but we returned by 9 pm.”