Travel by PMPML? Use Google Maps!

How often have you put off travelling by a Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) bus just because you did not know which route to take? Now, you can easily get all the required information by clicking on Google Maps. Pune is the second city, after Bangalore, to get the online facility.

The PMPML has teamed up with Google India to make available information of 364 bus routes. PMPML chairman and managing director (CMD), Dilip Band, in a press statement, thanked the Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture and the non-governmental organisation promoted by it, Janwani, which teamed up with the PMPML to organise the data of 1,554 buses and 364 routes in digital format.

Director of Janwani, Kishori Gadre, told DNA that citizens will get the latest updated information online. Product manager of Google India, Manik Gupta said, “We have offered users an easy way to get all necessary information such as bus schedules, route and time taken.”

A website giving details of PMPML bus routes, http://punebusguide.org  took off in September.

Indictrans Technology helped in digitisation of the data of PMPML bus routes. Its director, Swapnil Hazare told DNA that the facility on Google Maps is easy to use:

After opening the webpage http://maps.google.co.in/ of Google Maps, type Pune in a window on the top and click on ‘Search Maps’. The map of the city will appear.

Right click on the location and select ‘Destination from here’. Similarly, select the other location. A highlighted route will appear. Click on the icon of bus on the left hand to get details of how to reach the destination by a PMPML bus.

For example, select two locations on Solapur Road and Mumbai-Pune Bypass Road. The website says the time for travel is 1 hr 16 min. It also states stages in the journey as ‘Walk to Ram Tekdi (on Solapur Road, about 1 min) then take bus No. 184 towards Swargate (21 min, 11 stops), walk to Swargate (6 min), take bus no 69 - Market Yard to Ghotawadegaon and alight at Chandni Chowk (27 min, 23 stops) and then walk to the desired location on Mumbai-Pune Bypass Road in 18 min.