Alandi Road BRT safety audit by citizens' groups SPTM and PMPML Pravasi Manch finds significant flaws

13th January, 2014

The BRT infrastructure created by Pune Municipal Corporation on Alandi Road for BRT
has been found to have significant issues in a safety audit jointly conducted by the
citizens's groups Save Pune Traffic Movement (SPTM) and PMPML Pravasi Manch. Some
of the main issues are related to passenger and pedestrian safety. The bus boarding
infrastructure is hampered by missing or stuck rollers on the boarding platform, mismatch
between the bus floor and the platform floor, lack of automatic doors on the bus stations
and lack of indication for the bus driver to align the bus doors with the platform doors. The
access to the bus stations is dangerous at some places due to missing protection for the
zebra crossings with speed bumps.
Due to poor signage for the BRT lanes and missing or incorrectly installed bollards at
many pedestrian crossings, motorcycles will be able to easily use the BRT lanes as shortcuts
to cross the road and this can result in fatal accidents. None of the station exits and
pedestrian crossings have refuge areas for people to wait on while waiting for traffic to
clear. This will likely result in people being hit by the bus or private vehicles as they try to
cross.



The signs indicating the bus lanes are not prominent and clear enough and may result in
motorists getting confused. The absence of any lane markings in the intersection will also
result in confusion and possible side-swiping accidents between buses and private
vehicles. Most of the lane barricading and station building work is still incomplete at the
Vishrantwadi end of the corridor.
In addition, as door closing mechanism for left side doors has fallen into disuse on all the
older BRT buses in the PMPML fleet, the groups fear that in case of these not being
repaired in time, this may result in the left side doors being left open even while the bus in
the BRT lane resulting in passenger injuries or deaths.
In addition to the safety issues, almost all of the work regarding passenger comfort and
information hasn't yet been started by the PMC.
Another point highlighted by the groups was the creation of two bus stops within 100m of
each other at Sangamwadi that has resulted in wastage of over Rs 35 lakh of public funds.
SPTM and PMPML Pravasi Manch have appealed to PMC to delay the opening of the
BRT corridor until these issues are remediated.
Jayant Joshi 73879-00020 jayant.joshi@savepunetraffic.org