THE TIMES OF INDIA, PUNETHURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 20156 TIMES CITY

Pimpri Chinchwad: Frequ-ent breakdown of buses thatleaves over 200 buses off theroads every day makes pas-sengers using the services ofPune Mahanagar ParivahanMahamandal Limited(PMPML) a harried lot.

The situation can howe-ver be changed if there are in-vestments from the state go-vernment and the municipalcorporations not only for pro-curement of buses, but alsofor workshops, and additio-nal bus depots, seniorPMPML officials said.

The transport utility hasto focus on basic operationsand good services to cater tothe people in the urban agglo-meration of Pune, PimpriChinchwad and their fringeareas, PMPML’s chairmanand managing director Ab-hishek Krishna said recently.There are limitations in get-ting revenue from advertise-ments and giving buildingson rent, he added.

The transport utility, on

an average, plies about 1,400buses every day. On Mondaysand Thursdays, the numberof buses increase to nearly1,500. “While there are seve-ral proposals wherein buses

can be procured on a deferredpayment basis, or financialinstitutions offering low in-terest rates, these buses willbecome a headache in sixmonths. This is because the

buses need regular mainte-nance. While we have twoworkshops, we need at leasttwo more. Every bus depot ne-eds a small workshop. Even atwo-day old bus will suffer a

breakdown if it is not mainta-ined properly,” Krishna said.

While officials could notcome up with figures of thedaily or monthly breakdownof buses, they pointed out thatnearly 30% buses in the fleetare between eight and 12 yearsold and their maintenancecosts are high. The Pune Mu-nicipal Corporation has han-ded over vacant land in fiveoctroi posts which are not inuse. However, the PimpriChinchwad Municipal Cor-poration is sitting on a propo-sal to hand over three piecesof land in its octroi posts.

The PMPML has alreadystarted two depots at Bhekrai-nagar, and Shewalwadi on Pu-ne-Solapur Road. A third de-pot is likely to start at Balewa-di this month, officials said.

Guardian minister GirishBapat, who reviewed the func-tioning of PMPML last week,has promised a follow- up ofthe long-pending proposal of2.5 FSI for bus terminals anddepots, besides looking atland acquisition for new busdepots and terminals.

Eyes Financial Support From State, Civic Bodies To Give Fillip To ServicePMPML counts strengths & pitfalls

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Pic: TOI

Two BRTS corridors, inaugurated recently in Pune and Pimpri

Chinchwad, have won the ‘outstanding achievement award’, in the Volvo sustainability awards instituted in 2011. The two corridors together carry one lakh passengers every day. Surveys have revealed that about 12% riders in the Rainbow BRTS earlier used two-wheelers, rickshaws and even cars.

“This is the first time that BRTS has received recognition. Rainbow is the first-of-its-kind BRTS in Maharashtra. With the launch of Nashik Phata-Wakad corridor last week, the BRTS is now extending high quality public transport services to several thousand more passengers,” PMPML’s chairman and managing director Abhishek Krishna said.

Additional standard features of

THREE CHEERS FOR BRTS

BRTS such as off-board ticketing and better buses have been planned. The 8km Sangamwadi-Vishrantwadi corridor was inaugurated in the last week of August, while the 14km Sangvi-Kiwale corridor was inaugurated in September. The Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad municipal corporations have built the infrastructure for BRTS. The two cities are together planning a 115km Rainbow BRTS network.

Sangvi-Kiwale BRTS

Pimpri Chinchwad: Amulti-lingualpoets’ meet,open intervi-ews of Natio-nalist Cong-ress Partychief SharadPawar tomark his 75th

birthday, ast-rophysicistJayant Narli-kar, scien-tists Anil Ka-kodkar and RA Mashelkarand a book ex-hibition will

be the highlights of the four-day 89th Akhil BharatiyaMarathi Sahitya Samme-lan__ the all-India Marathiliterary meet that will beheld in Pimpri between Ja-nuary 15 and 18.

Speaking to TOI, SunilMahajan, treasurer, AkhilBharatiya Marathi SahityaMahamandal – the apex Ma-rathi literary body, said thedates of this sammelan ha-ve been finalized and daily

programmes are beingplanned.

Mahajan said, “Agranthdindi – a processionof books kept in a palanqu-in, will be held at 1pm on thefirst day of the sammelanon January 15. Tableaux ofwell-known industries ha-ving their units in PimpriChinchwad city will be partof the procession as this isan industrial city. Membersof Warkari community willalso participate in the pro-cession. We are also contac-ting schools in the city who-se students will take part inthe procession. The book ex-hibition will be inaugura-ted at 5pm.”

Mahajan said that the in-auguration of the samme-

lan will be on January 16 at10.30am. “We are invitingNCP chief Sharad Pawarand union minister NitinGadkari for the sammelan.The names of dignitarieswho will attend the inaugu-ral and valedictory sessionsand other programmes arebeing finalized. Eight Jnan-pith awardees have confir-med their participation,”he added.

“Generally, a meet ofMarathi poets is held du-ring the sammelan, but thistime we will be holding amulti-lingual poets’ meet.There will be a ‘khau galli’where people will be able tosavour special dishes of dif-ferent parts of the state andcountry,” Mahajan said.

Marathi literary meetto host Pawar, Narlikar

Pimpri Chinchwad: PimpriChinchwad Municipal Cor-poration (PCMC) has appoin-ted a consultant for construc-ting a bridge on Mula river toconnect Bopkhel and Khadki.The civic engineering depart-ment approved a proposal atthe standing committee mee-ting on Tuesday.

As per high court orders,the College of Military Engi-neering(CME) closed the 2.5kilometer linking Bopkhel toPune-Mumbai highway atDapodi in May this year. TheCME however constructed atemporary bridge on Mula ri-ver to provide temporary linkfrom Bopkhel to Khadki.

In October, CME said thatit had decided to dismantlethe bridge. “The bridge is acritical training resourceand would be needed frequ-ently for training purposes,”the CME stated in a release is-sued through the defencepublic relations officer onMonday. “Maintenance ofthe bridge is also a conside-rable drain on manpowerand, will soon need to be de-launched,” the release added.CME has however not dis-mantled the bridge.

Defence minister Mano-har Parrikar, during a mee-ting with district collector, lo-cal MPs and corporators, ci-vic and defence officials, hadissued directives to the civicbody to submit a proposal forconstruction of a permanentbridge near the temporary

bridge to link Bopkhel toKhadki.

Local corporator Sanjayalias Nana Kate corporatorsaid, “The civic body has fina-lized the consultant for thebridge project. PCMC offici-als and the staff of the consul-tant conducted a survey ofthe areas near the temporarybridge. The consultant will bepreparing a detailed reportof the project and submittingit to the civic body.”

Kate said that the perma-nent bridge should be const-ructed at the earliest for resi-dents in Bopkhel to reachKhadki. The local residentshad to travel through slushykutcha road in Khadki aftercrossing the bridge to reachthe tarred road in Khadki.Many two-wheelers had skid-ded and it resulted in minorinjuries. The same situationshould not prevail in the nextmonsoon, he said.

Rajan Patil, joint city eng-ineer, PCMC said, “The con-sultant will prepare the detai-led estimated cost of the brid-ge project. He has to submithis report within a month asthe defence minister has di-rected PCMC to start the pro-cess to invite bids for selec-ting the contractor to const-ruct the permanent bridge.The bridge will have a totalwidth of 9 meter comprisingtwo lanes of 3.5 meter widthfor vehicular traffic and onemeter wide footpath on bothsides. All types of small andheavy vehicles will be able toply on the bridge.”

Bopkhel village with a po-pulation of 20,000 is surroun-ded by defence land belong-ing to CME on three sides andMula river on the other side.The village was linked to Pu-ne-Mumbai highway at Dapo-di by a 2.5 km long road thatpasses through defence land.

Consultant appointed forBopkhel–Khadki bridge

Corporator Sanjay alias Nana Kate, local leaders, PCMC officials andconsultant’s employees conduct a survey in areas around the temporary bridge on Mula river at Bopkhel

TOISiddharth.Gaikwad@timesgroup.com

BETTER LATE THAN NEVERManish Umbrajkar

The traffic police have placed temporary barricades on the busy highway stretch between Khadki andBopodi to check congestion. Concerns about pedestrians’ safety have been raised time and again due tothe absence of road dividers. The proposal to widen the road has been pending for several years

Sunil Mahajan, treasurer, Akhil Bharatiya Marathi SahityaMahamandal said, “There will be around 500 stalls of books

in the exhibition. The registration charge for each of the stall isRs 5,000 for five days. We plan to raise around Rs 50 to Rs 60lakh which will be distributed as scholarships for studentsaffected by drought.” Mahajan said registrations for the stallsbegan from Tuesday and will continue till December 30 atMaharashtra Sahitya Parishad’s office on Tilak Road in Pune.

Scholarships for drought-hit students

Sharad Pawar& JayantNarlikar

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Pimpri Chinchwad:The crimebranch of the Pune police onWednesday arrested a criminalon police records for trying to extort Rs 25 lakh from a hotel owner of Hinjewadi on Novem-ber 5.

Deepak Shrirang Sonawane(29) of Tathawade, who was po-sing as the driver of sub-inspec-tor of the crime branch NitinKhamgal, called up NamdeoJambhulkar (50) expressing in-terest to start a pub at the latter’shotel. “Sonawane asked Jamb-hulkar to come to Nere village inMulshi taluka for further dis-cussions,” said Vijaysinh Gaik-wad, senior inspector of the an-ti-organized crime cell.

When Jambhulkar reachedNere village, Sonawane threate-ned him with a gun and deman-ded Rs 25 lakh. “Jambhulkar so-mehow managed to escape andlodged the complaint four daysago,” he added.

While conducting investiga-tions, the crime branch team,which interestingly comprisedKhamgal, got a tip-off that Sona-wane was involved in the crime.“Accordingly, we laid a trap andnabbed him,” Gaikwad said.

Criminalarrested forextortion bid

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Pimpri Chinchwad: TheMaharashtra State ElectricityDistribution Company Limit-ed (MSEDCL) has booked sixpersons of a heat treatmentplant in Bhosari for allegedpower theft of Rs 15.68 lakh.

A statement issued by theMSEDCL stated that this is thefourth incident in the areawhere the power theft was be-ing conducted using a remotecontrol. “The plant has beenfound indulging in theft of 1.19lakh units of power, whichcomes to Rs 15.68 lakh,” thestatement added.

It stated that the plant hasindustrial power connection.The theft was revealed whenthe power company conductedan inspection of the plant re-cently.

“The company used mod-ern technology tools andfound that resin cast mouldedCT (current transformer) wastampered with to steal power.It was also found that a remotecontrol was being used to stoppower usage registration evenwhen the power was beingconsumed,” the statementadded.

6 booked forpower theft

of ̀̀ 16.68 lakhTIMES NEWS NETWORK

Times of India, Pune, December 03, 2015, Pp. 6