Transport utility’s survey gets lukewarm response

PUNE: The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation’s (MSRTC) plan to introduce women-only special Volvo buses on the Pune-Mumbai route has received lukewarm response from women commuters.

The MSRTC had issued a circular in March this year, announcing its intention to start special women-only Volvo buses from Shivajinagar, Swargate and Pune Station depots.

The managers of the three depots were asked to conduct surveys to seek opinion of women commuters on the issue.

Shivajinagar senior depot manager S R Burande said that the MSRTC had prepared a questionnaire, seeking views of women commuters to know whether such a special bus was needed and the suitable timings, facilities needed, suitable places of halts, etc.

“For this purpose, we kept feedback boxes at the three MSRTC depots in the city. We had personally communicated to some women commuters, informing them about the proposal of the special bus service and had requested them to fill in the questionnaire in this regard,” Burande said.

Around 150 women responded to the survey and filled in the questionnaire in April.

“However, 90 per cent of the respondents felt that there was no need of having special Volvo buses on this route,” Burande said.

“Our aim was to offer comfortable journey to women, to give them enough seats and various other facilities. We are still willing to start this special service if such a demand is made by women commuters”, Burande added.

MSRTC’s Divisional Traffic Officer S P Kakade said, “We had planned to provide this service to women commuters on the lines of the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Ltd (PMPML), which has reserved a few seats for women commuters in its buses.”

MSRTC’s Swargate Depot Manager Vijay Diwate said, “We had expected that women commuters would welcome the proposal. We had kept the feedback box at the inquiry counter at Swargate depot and surprisingly, only two feedback forms were found in the box at the end of the month. We wanted some feedback for the proposal - either positive or negative.”

NO NEED FOR BUS

Around 150 women responded to the MSRTC’s survey. However, 90 per cent of the respondent women felt that there was no need of having special Volvo buses on this route, Burande said.