How efficient a city is isn’t measured by just its economic levels, its measured by its dynamics; how fast can one move. The availability of modes of public transport and their reach plays a very important role in keeping any city up alive, brimming with activities. And its for the same reason, that any major city you’d go to, you’d find at least one option which exists for everyone, and would take you to all and any place within the city.
Delhi has metro, Mumbai has its local trains, London has its tubes and the list can go on. The idea is never to replicate a plan, but to design something specifically for the city.

BRTS in Surat, started a few years ago, and the maiden line run services from Sachin to Udhana Darwaja. A new different line began across the entire length of the canal road, from Sarthana to Dumas Resort. Future expansion plans are under currently construction, which makes it fairly possible for anyone to have lucid movement anywhere within the city limits[which practically means the entire city]without really having to change the mode of transport.

 
Considering the fact that our city is rather made up of grids and is smaller in size, it’d make much more sense to have roads going anywhere and everywhere to be connected and interconnected, so as to make sure that each and every section of the city is accessible to anyone who lives on the other side of it. But…
Since the BRTS plan has been implemented in our city, the biggest outcry that has come up against it is the lack of space.
Sure it has taken away a part of the road, but what no one seems to be noticing is the fact that having such a wide spread system of road networks has enabled someone from, let’s just say Sachin, to end up at the university in 30 minutes for 20-30 rupees. On a broader note, there’s something for all of us in there.

 
To be neutrally honest, with its reach and its frequency, and especially the pace, the BRTS is rather quicker than a car or a bike, especially on both the routes, during peak traffic hours. So here we have a plan from the government which actually works, and is good, is quicker, efficient and anything that a citizen would want, but then, our response to it has been rather hilarious.
First of all, lets all just understand that a guaranteed space on the roads are not anyone’s birthright, and neither is travelling on our own respective vehicles or cars. The idea is to travel, and to travel quickly, and as people who have to go places and reach there on time, the idea should be to support the quickest mode that’d get you there. But…
The mob first bombarded the idea due to the lack of space on the road narrative, and then thronged the BRTS lanes during peak traffic hours, blocking even those buses, and making everything a pointless exercise. Then we also took to burning the stations and stoning them during our protests.
We don’t really have to do all of these, and its not really doing us some exceptional benefits, and we in turn are slowing other people down, who really don’t have any other option apart from it and we ourselves are the ones who in turn scream at them, when they turn up late, where we ourselves have caused it in the first place.
And then, there are accidents; accidents that claim lives out of sheer stupidity, and annoyance.

Roads are for everybody. Read that fact and let in sink in, because often we find ourselves in places were either us, or someone else around is treating it like some piece of fortune that came along with their dowry. Let’s not try taking it over like Hitler did with Europe.
A little more calmness, and compassion and especially not creating situations where you put yourself and also the unaware others into danger, this republic day, lets try to be a better human, if nothing else.

And look at it, it’s so beautiful 😀