Make school buses mandatory over private cars

Residents of Cuffe Parade will be requesting Somani schools in Cuffe Parade to ask their students to travel in school buses as is the case with The Cathedral and John Connon School in Fort.

The two schools are GD Somani Memorial School (ICSE) and BD Somani International School.

Cathedral school had made it mandatory for their school children to come by school bus over private cars. "We are looking to meet them for the same. We will request them that they instruct all their school children to come in school buses over private cars," said Padmakar Nandekar, secretary general of the Cuffe Parade Residents Association (CPRA).

He added, "There are a number of cars that come during school hours. Due to that, there is a considerable jam. In case of emergencies, there can be crisis as sometimes it takes nearly half an hour for people to cross that patch. Fire engines and ambulances will not be able to reach on time."

"We want that they too make it mandatory for their school students to come by school buses. We will also request that once that happens, they take the buses inside their ground for them to alight or get in. Even if someone is to come, they should not utilise more than one lane because lanes are narrow and sometimes cars coming for school children take up more than one lane which causes a lot of inconvenience," said Nandekar.

"We are always open to dialogues with CPRA and it is our endeavour to jointly work with them and help resolve the local issues including traffic problems," said Shrikant Somani, trustee of the schools.