Pune polls: Commuters in for a tough day today

Nearly 2 lakh passengers of the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal (PMPML) are likely to suffer on Thursday as the transport utility, which is already short of buses, has diverted 300 buses for election duty.

The statistics procured from the PMP Pravasi Manch states that out of the total fleet of 1,696 buses, 511 buses are off the roads, and only 1,185 buses are plying on city roads.

Now, out of these 1,185 buses, 300 buses are on election duty, so only 885 buses will be plying in the city on voting day on Thursday.

The PMPML has allotted 230 buses for PMC area and 70 buses for PCMC area. The transport body is already struggling to provide good service to its 10,60,000 passengers with a fleet of 1,696 buses, and now on Thursday the transport body will be short of 300 buses, which will cause great inconvenience to commuters.

President of PMP Pravasi Manch, Jugal Rathi, said, “The PMPML is already plagued by poor management, and now with 300 buses less, commuters are going to have a tough time on Thursday. I doubt the PMPML administration will be able to manage the passenger flow without these 300 buses.”

Rathi added, “The figures show that out of the 1,696 buses, 511 buses are off roads because they have broken down. If the PMPML had to provide some buses for election duty, they should have repaired at least 200 buses. These buses would have helped the transport body to manage the passenger flow better.”

One PMPML bus ferries 900 to 1,000 passengers in a day. These 300 buses would have ferried nearly 3, 00,000 passengers on Thursday.

“Even if we consider low passenger flow since Thursday is a holiday due to election, nearly 2 lakh passengers will be affected. Besides, the PMPML, which is already running losses, is likely to incur a loss of Rs25 lakh in absence of these 300 buses on Thursday,” he said.

When contacted, the public relation officer of PMPML, Deepaksingh Pardeshi, said, “Since it is a holiday, there will be less number of passengers in the city on Thursday. So, we feel that they will not face any problem without these 300 buses.”