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 surge in passengers travelling to their hometowns. The plan involves operating approximately 200 to 400 extra buses daily from Pune to destinations across Marathwada, Vidarbha, Khandesh and western Maharashtra.
Pune division controller Arun Siya told Civic Mirror Bureau and Pune Times Mirror that additional services would be arranged as the number of passengers travelling during the Diwali holidays rises. The planned routes include major destinations such as Nagpur, Amravati, Dhule, Jalgaon and Buldhana, as well as Nanded, Latur, Parbhani and other locations in Marathwada.
The additional buses will not come entirely from Pune division’s own fleet. Siya said buses would be made available by other ST divisions to meet the expected demand. “Those buses will come from the concerned divisions; they are not our buses,” he said, underlining the need for coordination between divisions during the festival period.
More than 85 regular buses from Pune division to Vidarbha, Marathwada and western Maharashtra have already been fully reserved, according to a senior ST official. The reservations include 40 buses for Vidarbha, 35 for Marathwada and 10 for western Maharashtra. Depots have been asked to plan special services, with officials responsible for coordinating their operation and availability.
For western Maharashtra, 200 additional buses will depart from Swargate bus stand apart from the regular services. These buses will serve 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 stand.
The announcement comes as passengers continue to raise concerns about the quality and reliability of festival-period services. Travellers have sought not only more buses, but also proper maintenance, timely departures and adequate frequency on shorter routes. They have particularly pointed to difficulties faced by passengers travelling to nearby rural areas at night, when available services may not match demand.
Nikhil Sawant, who is planning to travel to Parbhani, said buses should be added to routes according to demand and that the condition of the existing fleet also needed attention. He referred to breakdowns experienced during the recent Ganesh festival and said increasing the number of buses would not be sufficient unless service quality also improved.
Regular passenger Sachin Pawar said Swargate bus stand often becomes difficult to navigate at night, especially when additional buses are not arranged for short-distance routes. He called for more services to villages in Pune and Satara districts. The ST administration has said that matching bus deployment with passenger demand and maintaining coordination among divisions will be central to the Diwali plan.
