Luxury buses add to traffic woes in Pune

The halting points of luxury or private buses cause inconvenience to commuters as they are contributing to traffic chaos on city roads.

From Pune, long routes buses like Nagpur, Yavatmal, Nanded, Hyderabad, Surat, Bengaluru etc are scheduled daily and these buses have various pick up points across the city. In the morning and evening hours, these buses tend to slow down traffic.

Vijay Kumar Magar, deputy commissioner of police (traffic), said, “Luxury buses which come from other cities halt at various locations to pick up and drop off passengers. Earlier, we held meetings with private bus owners and now we will meet vendors (who decide on halting locations) so that they decide on the pick up points on the outskirts of the city.”

Harshad Abhyankar, director, Save Pune Traffic Movement, said, “Providing designated space for buses every 3-5 km is needed so that these buses pick up passengers without causing traffic nuisance. Also, the need for these private buses arises because of insufficient Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) buses. If MSRTC provides these private vehicles with a space in their bus depot the issue can be resolved.”

Deepak Kapse, a commuter from Aundh, said, “Instead of halting on main roads these people should be given space on open grounds or they should halt on roads which have less traffic in morning and evening hours.”

Another commuter, Prashant Patil said, “Private buses should be given space in the outskirts of the city and they should be only allowed to enter the city in the early morning hours.”

A private bus owner on the request of anonymity said, “We decide on a pick up point by checking if it is causing chaos, if so, we change the location.”