Chandrakant Patil instructs PMPML to reopen closed rural routes

Earlier, MP Supriya Sule too had raised the issue of closing of PMPML bus operations in rural areas of Pune

A day after the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) closed down some more routes out of the 40 lossmaking routes in the rural parts of Pune district that had been decided to be shuttered earlier, Pune district guardian minister Chandrakant Patil instructed PMPML senior officials to reopen all closed routes for the benefit of commuters. Rural commuters had expressed anger over the closing down of these routes and had demanded that they be restored. Earlier, MP Supriya Sule too had raised the issue of the closing of PMPML bus operations in rural areas of Pune.

Rural commuters had expressed anger over the closing down of these routes and had demanded that they be restored. (HT FILE PHOTO)

“Since the last few days, commuters, especially from rural parts of the district, have been demanding that these PMPML routes should not be closed. Hence, I took a review with the concerned authorities. Although the MSRTC had sent a letter to the PMPML regarding closing down of these routes which had been started during the MSRTC strike, commuters have now gotten used to these services for daily travel. Hence, I have instructed senior officials of the PMPML to immediately reopen all closed routes in rural areas,” Patil said.

Earlier, the PMPML had cited ‘losses’ as the reason for closing down the 40 rural routes and that passengers would now be able to travel by MSRTC buses along the same routes. It was last year during the long strike by MSRTC workers that the PMPML started several new routes, especially in the rural areas of Pune district, for the benefit of commuters. Even after the MSRTC strike ended, these PMPML services continued to be operational. Hence, the MSRTC Pune division sent letters to the PMPML to close down these routes as it was impacting the MSRTC bus service. Accordingly, it was decided to close down 40 such routes out of which 23 routes had already been closed till date.

“I used to travel daily from Saswad to Yavat by PMPML bus and this route had been newly-started. As this bus service was suddenly closed down, hundreds of daily commuters like me were furious. It used to be a fully packed bus for daily transportation and we used to prefer it over the ST bus service,” said Mukund Khaladkar, a citizen.