The Bus Rapid Transport System (BRTS), a dedicated lane in the middle of the road for public transport buses, have failed to live up to its hype. Designed to alleviate traffic congestion and reduce the conflict between buses and other vehicles, it has succeeded in neither. So much so that the BRTS lanes on Nagar Road and some other places were locations were dismantled by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) in order to ease traffic.

However, in Pimpri-Chinchwad, PCMC Commissioner Shekhar Singh said the BRTS lanes won't be dismantled. "There is no question of doing away with BRTS lanes. We will never remove them," the PCMC chief said. In fact, he said all efforts were being made to strengthen BRTS and the entire public transport system. "There should be more buses on the road, more routes and less private vehicles. We should encourage public buses and discourage private vehicles from coming onto the roads," Singh added.

This comes after growing opposition to BRTS in Pimpri-Chinchwad. Citizens have been complaining that the road width has shrunk due to BRTS and the Pune Metro.

Regarding the metro, Singh said he was confident that its ridership would increase further. "As we have four-five more routes planned, the metro ridership will grow for sure. We have to make all efforts to ensure last-mile connectivity. Steps have already been taken on that front," he added.