Pune: The accident-prone 2.2km unused BRTS section between Phoenix Mall and Somnathnagar on Pune-Ahmednagar Road was dismantled on Tuesday midnight, more than a year after PMC began removing the bus-only corridor infrastructure in phases on Nagar Road in June 2023 amid rampant traffic jams and accidents. Citizens said they hoped the traffic situation to improve on the section after the action, which followed a series of TOI articles over the last two years, exposing the risks of BRTS along one of Pune's key highway stretches.
Now, only 2.2km BRTS section between Vimannagar Chowk and Kharadi Bypass Chowk remains on the road. Chandannagar resident Prashant Jagtap said, "We had submitted our suggestions regarding the removal of BRTS to the PMC in 2022.
We then regularly followed up with the administration and had requested to undertake action on the entire BRTS route right till Kharadi in one go." Deputy commissioner of police (traffic) Amol Zende, citing a survey carried out over the past two months, said 12 accidents were reported at Vimannagar Chowk and on the BRTS divider at the Airport police station, with three being of serious nature. "The right-side BRTS divider in front of Phoenix Mall was 30 feet to the right after the signal, which caused accidents as heavy vehicles climbed onto the divider," Zende said, while citing four accidents occurring in a single week at Vimannagar Chowk in his report.
In June last year, the BRTS dividers between Yerawada and Ramwadi were remov.