Festive Congestion Chokes ST Stands

Festive Congestion Chokes ST Stands

PUNE: Citizens travelling from Pune to other cities are facing the brunt of ‘festive congestion’ as terrible traffic jams are resulting in their inter-city buses getting delayed by 3-6 hours.
 
The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) buses, booked to capacity, not only reached their destination late, but even the departure was delayed. This comes despite the transport department increasing the bus fare by 10 per cent. 

Heavy rush of passengers could be seen at the Shivajinagar ST stand, Swargate ST stand and Pune station. Due to ongoing metro work at Shivajinagar ST stand, the new ST stand is already started operation at Aarey field at Wakdewadi.  The chaos at these places was seen on Friday and Saturday. Most of the passengers have booked their tickets online and they reached the stand one hour earlier.

However, they have to wait for two-three hours to board their buses. 
“The buses are delayed due to heavy traffic at Shikrapur, Nagar Road and Rajgurunagar. The buses were stuck for almost 4-5 hours. Each bus has to do 2-3 trips these days. But due to heavy traffic, the buses don’t reach on time. In the last three days, almost 1,200 buses were operated from old and new Shivajinagar ST stands,” said Shivajinagar depot manager Dnyaneshwar Ranavare. 

Before the festival, the state transport department has increased the fare by 10 per cent. Those who have already booked their ticket and paid the old fare are being forced to pay an extra amount. Several passengers complain that if the fare has been increased, they have to announce early or a month before the festival. 

Prasad Uttekar, one of the passengers travelling to Kolhapur, said, “I had booked my ticket a month ago in a Shivshahi AC bus. When I was about to board the bus, the conductor checking the ticket asked me to pay 10 per cent more. When I asked him about the increased fare, he replied that either I will have to pay or I will not be allowed to board the bus. This is unfair and if they increase the fare, they should announce it at least a week earlier.”

Another passenger, Dhanashree Jagtap going to Aurangabad with her family from Shivajinagar ST stand, said, “We booked the ticket a month ago. We paid almost Rs 2,000 and we are again paying Rs 1,000 extra.”

An officer from Pune division of MSRTC said, “The fare has been increased from October 25 to November 5. The passengers have to pay Rs 20-80 extra for ordinary and Shivshahi buses. However, the fare for Shivneri and Ashwamedh service has not been increased. We are charging less than private operators. If they can pay more than Rs 1,000 to private operators, they, why can’t they pay us? We are reaching the destination on time and the ST is providing better service than others.”

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