Pune ST buses will receive a major Diwali boost, with the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation planning around 2,000 additional services over eight to 10 days to manage the seasonal rush from the city to destinations across Maharashtra. The plan will add roughly 200 to 400 buses a day, according to Pune division controller Arun Siya.
The additional services are intended for passengers travelling from Pune to Marathwada, Vidarbha, Khandesh and western Maharashtra during the Diwali holiday period. The routes will cover major destinations including Nagpur, Amravati, Dhule, Jalgaon and Buldhana, along with Nanded, Latur, Parbhani and other locations in Marathwada.
Siya told Civic Mirror Bureau and Pune Times Mirror that the additional buses would be arranged in response to the expected rise in passengers travelling to their hometowns for the festival. The buses will be brought in from other ST divisions rather than being drawn entirely from the Pune division’s own fleet.
More than 85 regular buses departing from Pune for Vidarbha, Marathwada and western Maharashtra have already recorded full reservations, according to a senior ST official. The bookings include 40 buses for Vidarbha, 35 for Marathwada and 10 for western Maharashtra. Depots have been asked to plan special services to handle the additional demand, with officials responsible for coordinating their operation.
For western Maharashtra, 200 additional buses will be operated from Swargate bus station. These services will benefit passengers travelling to Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur and Solapur, as well as destinations in the Konkan region. Special services are also being planned from Shivajinagar bus station.
The announcement comes as passengers have raised concerns that increasing the number of buses alone may not be enough to manage the festival rush. They have sought reliable services, adequate frequency, timely departures and better maintenance, particularly on rural and shorter-distance routes.
Passengers also pointed to gaps in late-night services from Swargate. Regular commuter Sachin Pawar said that travellers heading to nearby villages in Pune and Satara districts often face confusion and inconvenience because additional buses are not made available according to demand at night.
Nikhil Sawant, who is planning to travel to Parbhani, said the ST should deploy new or better-maintained buses on routes where demand is high. He referred to breakdowns experienced by passengers during the recent Ganeshotsav and said fleet condition and service quality would be as important as the number of buses placed into operation.
An ST senior official said coordination between different divisions would be necessary to match bus availability with passenger demand during the festival period. The additional services are expected to operate for eight to 10 days, with route-level planning and implementation being handled by the concerned depots and officials.
