Pune News : PMPML may re-introduce traffic wardens to BRTS lanes

After three years, Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited intends to reintroduce traffic wardens in all of the BRTS corridors that are currently in operation in PMC areas.

According to a senior PMPML official, there are plans to reinstate traffic wardens on the BRTS routes that are currently in use. These wardens have the authority to bar private vehicles from using the hallways and avert collisions.

Private vehicles have turned the city’s Bus Rapid Transport System (BRTS) corridors into free-flowing lanes, which has resulted in collisions and fatalities. One such BRTS corridor saw the most recent fatal accident happen on a lane in front of Deccan College on Sunday afternoon, where a junior college student lost her life.

The Dighi student was killed in a head-on collision with a PMPML bus while riding a scooter. Her friend, a final-year engineering student, was hospitalized after suffering severe injuries while riding pillion.

Currently, there is no mechanism in place to prevent private vehicles from accessing the operational BRTS corridors within the jurisdiction of the Pune Municipal Corporation. Up until Wednesday, a portion of the BRTS corridors connecting Sangamwadi-Vishrantwadi, Yerawada-Wagholi, and Swargate-Katraj were operational. The administration tore down a significant portion of the BRTS corridor between Yerwada and Wagholi late on Wednesday night.

According to a PMPML official, the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation employs twenty-seven traffic wardens who work in three shifts in the new BRTS corridor between Alandi and Charholi. There are talks about reintroducing wardens to other corridors. They repeatedly appeal to people via different media to stop driving on the BRTS lanes. There are gaps in certain corridors. These openings are typically used by people to enter the bus-only corridors.