COMMUNICATIONS

PUBLIC TRANSPORT

State Transport: With a view to improve passenger transport facilities, Government set up the State Road Transport Corporation in 1948. The system envisaged to discourage the unhealthy competition in local agencies doing transport business on purely profit motive and to develop wide-spread facilities of passenger transport to the travelling people by giving them assured means of transport.

The Divisional Office of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation at Sholapur controls the transport activities in the district. Direct links have been established not only with all district headquarters of Pune Division but also those of Bombay, Aurangabad and Nagpur Divisions. Moreover, Bijapur, a district head-quarters in Karnatak State, is also connected by the State Transport Service Besides these, a number of new routes have been introduced since 1948. In introducing these new routes the Corporation takes into consideration various factors such as alternative transport services on that route, its economic importance, demand for passenger traffic, availability of goods traffic etc. In Sholapur district almost on every motorable road the State Transport buses ply. The net-work of the bus-routes is remarkable in the district. All the important towns, taluka places, market places, villages of some historical or religious importance or those popular for any fair or bazar are linked with the towns in the district. Various amenities are provided to passengers at a number of bus depots and bus-stands in the district.

Depots are situated at (1) Sholapur, (2) Akkalkot, (3) Barshi, (4) Karmala, (5) Akluj, (6) Pandharpur and (7) Sangola. These depots together run buses on 317 routes. Special arrangements to run buses to and from Pandharpur on Chaitri. Ashadhi, Kartiki and Maghi ekadashis are made by the State Transport Corporation.

Nationalisation of passenger road transport in the district was completed by the end of the Second Five-Year Plan. The Third and Fourth Five-Year Plans included schemes of expansion of transport services to new places, construction of permanent bus stations and pick-up stands, and provision of other facilities for the travelling public.

The controlling unit of the State Transport Corporation at Sholapur is in charge of the Division. As such its operational jurisdiction extends to other districts also. The statistics regarding the activities of this unit during the years 1962-63 to 1965-66 and 1970-71 and 1972-73 are given in table No. 5.

Table No. 6 shows the depot-wise statistics in the district.

Details about the routes and number of trips operated are given in table No. 7.

The following are the lists of long-distance routes, i.e., inter-regional and inter-State routes (as on 31st March 1975):-

LIST OF INTER-REGIONAL ROUTES

LIST OF INTER-STATE ROUTES

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