Conceding that accidents on the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) route were taking place due to lack of proper road-crossing facilities for pedestrians, Municipal Commissioner Praveensinh Pardeshi at the general body meeting on Monday said that once the frequency of buses plying on the track increases to one bus every five minutes from the present 10-15 minutes, it would automatically deter other vehicles from using the BRTS route and pedestrians from carelessly crossing the roads. He also said that the BRTS pilot project would be completed by December. "The integrated planning for BRTS has been missing. The planning was done in a piecemeal manner and it was only in November last year, efforts were made to implement BRTS in an integrated way,' he said. Mayor Rajlaxmi Bhosale directed the civic administration to create proper road-crossing facilities like installing escalators or underpasses for pedestrians on the BRTS route. She made it clear that it was high time the civic administration became serious about the BRTS, before it collapses completely. The discussion at the special meeting started with NCP corporator Vishal Tambe highlighting the absence of speed-breakers on Pune-Satara Road which has become a nightmare for travellers. Several corporators, cutting across party lines, criticised the civic administration for its failure to implement the project in an efficient way. Replying to the allegations Pardeshi said, "The BRTS is an ambitious project. But it was implemented in Pune on a pilot basis in the whole country. But due to lack of proper planning, we are facing a number of problems now. Since the BRTS route was thrown open to PMPML and other buses, there has been a rise in the road accidents.' "In Bogota (USA), there are underpasses made for pedestrians at every 400 metres to facilitate road crossing. But it is a very costly affair. Besides, we cannot keep the crossings on the road surface. Hence we have to look for some other feasible option,' Pardeshi said.