Officials said the plan is to run 276 buses on the route, amounting to 2,200 trips daily. Express
The Nigdi-Dapodi BRTS route, which has been delayed for nearly six years, will start services from Friday.
“We are ready to start the service between Nigdi and Dapodi from Friday,” said Municipal Commissioner Shravan Hardikar on Wednesday. The service falls under the jurisdiction of the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC).
However, the initial service will not be provided for free, as was the case on other BRTS routes. The route was constructed years ago, but ran into hurdles after activists approached the Bombay High Court with security concerns. Hardikar said the Bombay High Court has now given clearance for the route. The court will be monitoring the service, but not directly. “IIT Bombay will submit a report to us regarding the safety of the BRTS route. We will place the report before the high court,” said Vijay Bhojne, in-charge of PCMC’s BRTS department.
The Nigdi-Dapodi BRTS route will be the third in Pimpri-Chinchwad. The other two — Nashik Phata to Wakad and Sangvi to Kiwale — are running successfully with passenger counts surging, officials said.
The route is expected the ease traffic on the highway stretch passing through PCMC limits, which has been chaotic due to ongoing Metro work in the express lane. However, state transport buses will not be able to ply the BRTS route, officials said. Bhojne said the plan is to run 276 buses on the route, amounting to 2,200 trips daily. Officials said a bus will be available every three minutes for commuters. There are 36 bus stations on the route, managed by the Intelligent Traffic Management System. Some destinations are Nigdi to PMC headquarters, Pune station, Hadapsar, Katraj, Warje Malwadi, Upper Indira Nagar, Wagholi and Kothrud. The Nigdi-Dapodi BRTS is 13 kms on the Bombay-Pune highway. However, for two-and-a-half km at Pimpri and Kasarwadi, the route has not been laid to accommodate Metro work.
It is not yet clear as to who will inaugurate the service.