HT Follow-up: Did you come across a stranded PMPML bus in Pune, today?
More than 50 per cent of PMPML buses are in use for 8 years or longer. PMPML has registered close to 6,000 incidents of bus breakdowns in July.
The Pune mahanagar parivahan mahamandal limited (PMPML) has been in the news for all wrong reasons this monsoon season, owing to the increasing number of breakdown of its buses.
PMPML has registered close to 6000 incidents of breakdown of its buses and this number is expected to increase when the tally for August comes out, say PMPML officials.
Nayana Gunde, chairperson and managing director of PMPML, while speaking to HT, stated that constant neglect of the civic bus service company by authorities and politicians has led to the poor conditions of the PMPML buses.
“It is true that the number of incidents of bus breakdown have increased considerably. We are working in the best of our capacity to reduce the number of incidents of breakdown and are carrying out proper maintenance of these buses. However, it is difficult to mitigate the number of breakdowns,” she said.
According to Gunde, except for the 200 midi buses which were inducted this year, PMPML has not inducted regular size buses for a very long time.
“While the number of passengers has increased significantly, we have failed to increase the number of buses in proportion to the rising population,” said Gunde.
She added, “Currently, over 50 per cent of our buses have been in use for eight years and more . Since then we have not inducted new buses which should have been the priority. Currently, no matter how carefully the maintenance of these buses is done, we still have no control over technical and mechanical failures in these buses.”
An analysis of civic data as presented in the environment status reports over 20 years by HT has highlighted the stunted, 2.6 fold growth (162%) of the Pune mahanagar parivahan mahamandal limited’s (PMPML) bus fleet as against a 10-fold growth (895%) in the number of four-wheelers and five-fold growth in the number of two-wheelers (400%).
Gunde, has accused the city politicians of not prioritising the development of the PMPML over the years and has also urged the civic authorities to increase the budgetary allocations for PMPML in its annual budget.
A senior PMPML official, requesting anonymity said, “City politicians are in a large way responsible for the poor conditions of the PMPML. On one hand, politicians fail to induct new buses over the years. On the other hand, we receive numerous letters from people requesting us to start operations of PMPML buses in their areas.”
This adds a financial burden on the PMPML along with the disproportionate allocation of the resources we have, said the official.