PUNE : Faced with a severe shortage of buses, the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) said the number of vehicles in its fleet
would for the first time cross the 2,100 mark by the year-end. The city's public bus undertaking on Wednesday inducted five new buses in its fleet, including the first JNNURM bus' as funded by the central and state governments.
The five buses inducted on Wednesday are among the total 887 buses which will be introduced in the fleet over the next six months, said PMPML's chairman and managing director Nitin Khade. By the end of this year, PMPML's total fleet of buses would be 2109, he said at a function organised to dedicate the buses to the city. The function was attended by Pune mayor Rajlaxmi Bhosale, Pimpri-Chinchwad mayor Aparna Doke, as also elected office-bearers of both the municipal corporations.
In his speech, Khade compared the cities of Pune and Bangalore, where buses comprise a major part of the public transport system. "While Bangalore has 80 buses for a lakh of people, Pune has just 28. This shortage of vehicles invariably makes it difficult for PMPML to improve its services." However, 650 buses procured under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) scheme, 162 buses got on lease from private operators and another 75 taken from funds made available by both the municipal corporations will start arriving in the next few months, he added.
At present, the PMPML has a fleet of 1,441 buses, of which 267 have been taken on lease from private operators. Khade said of the 1,441 buses, the transport undertaking has 219 buses, which are more than ten years old. The frequent breakdown of these vehicles affects the transport services and creates a bad image, he said. However, after the induction of the 887 buses, the old buses will be scrapped. The need for more buses will be felt even more because the free-travel scheme for students studying in standard V to X will start shortly. A similar scheme is to be introduced for students in Pimpri-Chinchwad, because the municipal corporation has forwarded a proposal in this regard, he said. Various innovative schemes such as making daily bus passes available with conductors in the buses will also be introduced soon.
Rajlaxmi Bhosale said the PMPML is committed to providing efficient public transport services for the people. When the transport body was formed after the merger of the Pune and the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Transport undertakings, the citizens had high expectations from the new transport company. The PMPML is on its way to providing good services, she added. Doke said the public transport service should improve such that people should be forced to leave their private vehicles at homes and take the bus.
One of the directors of the PMPML, Ajit Apte, said in his speech that plying buses on public-private partnership does not mean privatisation of the transport body. The objective behind the formation of the PMPML will be fulfilled only if the transport company is able to provide good services.
At the function, Nationalist Congress Party leader of the house in the PMC, Anil Bhosale, handed over a cheque of Rs 20 crore on behalf of the PMC for payment of salaries and arrears of the PMPML employees. Among others present at the occasion were standing committee chairpersons of Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, Nilesh Nikam and Dnyaneshwar Bhalerao, PCMC commissioner Ashish Sharma and senior corporators Ujwal Keskar, Sulabha Ubale. MLA Kamal Dhole Patil presided over the function.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Pune/PMPML-to-get-2100-buses-by-year-...
