Atal buses transport 1 lakh commuters in nine days

The newly started Aligning Transit on All Lanes (Atal) bus service by the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) has now begun receiving a warm response

The newly started Aligning Transit on All Lanes (Atal) bus service by the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) has now begun receiving a warm response by commuters from Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad with over 1 lakh commuters in nine days.

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The Atal bus runs a distance of 5 kilometres with a 5-minute frequency and a ₹5 ticket on 62 new routes in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, the service was ushered in on October 25.

“We are getting a good response to the new ATAL bus service, as we crossed the 50,000 commuters mark in the first five days. Now the number has crossed more than 1 lakh and daily the number of passengers is increasing. It is a shuttle bus service for a short distance and we are hoping that maximum citizens return to public transport,” said PMPML chairman and managing director Rajendra Jagtap.

According to Jagtap, in the last three days which were public holidays, the buses received a decent number of commuters on all routes.

“So, with about 160 to 170 buses on all these 62 new routes, passengers are accepting new facilities of transit from one station to another in the core city and the feeder at terminal depot stations. Some of these routes have high passengers while on some there is a slow response. Things will get clear over a period of time. In the future we are going to take this feeder bus service project for the metro services too, as people once got down from the Metro can travel by PMPML feeder service buses to their nearby destinations. For the next three months, we will take a review of this project, take feedback of passengers and accordingly changes and up gradation will be done on it,” Jagtap said.

Shantanu Helanwar, a regular commuter from Jambhulwadi to Katraj depot said, “I am travelling in this newly started shuttle bus service for my work since the past one week, and it seems to be efficient. In such a low fare we reach our nearby destination, or else we had to pay around Rs 20 to share an auto rickshaw. We hope that this service continues and remains constant for commuters like us who travel to nearby distances.”