Transportation bears the brunt in & around Pune

PUNE: Sameer Lohiya and Adarsh had come to Pune on Tuesday to attend an official meeting. They were scheduled to return to Mumbai on Wednesday. Though the duo had return tickets, they were stranded in the city, thanks to the decision of Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) to keep the buses off the roads.
"We had called up the office at the Swargate stand in the morning and were told the buses to Mumbai were operational. With our tickets booked, we reached Swargate at around 2.30pm. However, the bus stand was empty and we found out that all the buses had been cancelled. We had no options but to cancel the tickets. We thought of taking a train, but decided against it due to the bandh call and the prevailing situation," Sameer said.



While the Mumbai duo had the means to spend another day in the city, not everyone was that lucky. Bandu Nagarkar, a farmer visiting Pune along with his wife and son, had to go to Kolhapur. "We don't have any relatives or friends here, nor do we have the money to stay in the city. We will go to the station and look for trains. If we don't get train tickets, we will have to spend the night at the station," Nagarkar said.

Srinivas Joshi, the MSRTC Pune's divisional controller, said the buses plying on the long routes had to be stopped in the afternoon. "The police suggested we stop operations of the buses going to Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Kolhapur, Solapur, Aurangabad, Nashik etc. In Pune district, only 20% buses were running," he said.

However, travel even within the city was not easy. Kondhwa-resident Shereen Mehta had to skip work altogether. "I tried booking a cab, on Ola and Uber, several times but couldn't find any driver. I was also scared to ride my own two-wheeler to the workplace on Wednesday. I had to skip work," she said.

While the representatives of Ola refused to comment on the issue, an Uber spokesperson said, "There have been some incidents in Pune on Wednesday, wherein our cars have been vandalized. Therefore, we have asked our drivers to coordinate with the police."

Meanwhile, PMPML officials were worried about the heavy operational losses. "Since January 1, about 55 of our buses have been vandalized. We have even filed first information reports (FIRs)," PMPML public relations officer Subhash Gaikwad said.