Pune: I’ve asked probe panel to speed up report on buses catching fire, says PMPML chairperson

There’s a committee, under the chairmanship of Regional Transport Officer Babasaheb Ajri, which is investigating this issue. This committee was formed much before I took charge. In fact, it was formed when Mr (Tukaram) Mundhe was the CMD, but it had not submitted its report. After the recent incident, I have requested the committee to speed up and submit the report, which they are likely to do next week.

Once that report is with us, we will know the reasons as well as the measures that will be needed to fix the issue. We will take all measures required, as this is a serious matter concerning the life and safety of our passengers. Apart from that, we are also going to ask the Pune Municipal Corporation’s Fire Department to conduct an audit of all our buses so that we know the specific issues that need to be addressed in each of the buses in our fleet.

PMPML employees were said to have been ‘demoralised’ under the previous leadership. Are they feeling better now?

(Laughs) You have to ask them. I can’t comment on that.

Why is there a large gap between the number of scheduled trips of buses and the number of trips that actually take place? Sometimes, just about 5,000 trips happen out of an average of 22,500 scheduled trips.

This is largely because of the breakdown of buses and issues pertaining to their maintenance. We have buses which are more than 15 years old, and some are more than 20 years old. There are 249 buses in our fleet that have run more than 10 lakh kilometres. These buses have to be removed from the fleet, but it can only be done once we get new buses. About 100 new buses that we have received are midi-buses, which can’t be used on these routes. We have to wait until we get 800 new buses. The process for acquiring them is ongoing. Our requirement is much higher, and anyway, we have a shortage of buses.

As per the CIRT (Central Institute for Road Transport), a public transport utility should have 50 buses per one lakh people. PMPML is catering to a population of 70 lakh in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad. So, we need about 3,000 buses. We presently own only 1,200 buses. There are plans to buy another 1,550 buses under various schemes. So, we will eventually get there.

PMPML relies heavily on private contractors, but are they cooperating?

Private operators run 653 buses for PMPML. I am going to sit with them and discuss why the number of privately-owned PMPML buses on the road is going down. Presently, the percentage of operation has come down to almost 50 per cent. This is distressing, and hence, I will call a meeting with all four private operators and sort it out. What they are complaining about is the huge penalty amount that was imposed on them some months ago.

The city’s transport activists had complaints about the PMPML’s work under its previous head. How are you engaging with them?

I recently met with them and, in fact, we conducted a joint inspection of the BRT stretch of Pune-Ahemadnagar Road. They had pointed out some specific gaps in the BRT infrastructure, which I found to be true, and we are working to resolve them. Recently, a BRT Cell has also been formed with members from the PMPML as well as civil society to oversee the working of BRT. The committee will meet regularly to address the issues in service and improve it.

Users complain that the PMPML’s grievance redressal system on the website and the PMP Connect App is not satisfactory, and that issues were not solved at all.

Yes. This issue was raised by the activists I met the other day. I am planning to go through the entire process of how grievances are resolved. I will check whether the issues raised were really checked and addressed or if the complainants were just sent a standard reply to close the complaint.