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This is an archive article published on December 30, 2014

400 PMPML buses do not roll as civic bodies drag their feet on financial aid

PMPML officials attribute the precarious financial condition to the attitude of officials and corporators.

There is no money to buy spare parts or fuel for the 400 vehicles that remain stranded. There is no money to buy spare parts or fuel for the 400 vehicles that remain stranded.

As many as 400 buses of PMPML, the transport service run by the civic body, remain stranded as the public transport body is running short of money to purchase spare parts or fuel.

The PMPML has been losing Rs 10,000 daily on running each bus of its fleet that carries more than 50 commuters at a time, and this in effect makes a Rs 40-lakh dent on PMPML every day.

PMPML (Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited) officials attribute the precarious financial condition to the attitude of officials and corporators of the Pune Municipal Corporation and Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation which they said do not extend timely financial assistance. Both PMC and PCMC are supposed to pay Rs  72 crore as financial assistance. But both have been dragging their feet on it.

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PMPML chairman and managing director Shrikar Pardeshi said, “We received  some amount from both corporations, but are waiting for Rs 72  crore. This amount includes their share in giving free bus passes to  school students and also their share of operational losses.”
PMC is supposed to give Rs 46 crore and PCMC Rs 26  crore. When contacted, PCMC commissioner Rajiv Jadhav said his administration will provide Rs 12 crore to PMPML by “tomorrow”.

“We will get the amount approved  in tomorrow’s general body meeting. The remaining will be paid in a short time,” he said. Jadhav attributed the delay to lack of budgetary provisions for the transport undertaking in the PCMC budget.

“There was no provision in the budget for PMPML. We had to divert funds from other heads,” he said.

PMC commissioner Kunal Kumar said that in a day or two, PMC will pay Rs 15 crore to PMPML. “The remaining will be paid in installments later,” he said. Kumar said PMC has paid Rs 144 crore to PMC this year so far. “In all, we will pay Rs 190 crore to PMPML this year. We are doing our best to help out PMPML,” he said.

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Pardeshi said they have been unable to run nearly 400 buses. “We can’t purchase spare parts or fuel them. These buses, and their conductors and drivers are idle. If these buses run daily, our Rs 40 lakh deficit a day will come down in no time and we will break even…”

PMPML is also trying to convince the employees’ union to part with Rs 50 crore received from civic bodies as the Sixth Pay Commission salary arrears. “For a temporary period, we have requested the union to allow us to use Rs 50 crore and when PMC and PCMC provide their share, we will return the amount,” he said.

Jugal Rathi of PMP Pravasi Manch said, “This reflects the casual approach of civic bodies towards running PMPML. If  PMC and PCMC take active interest, there is no reason for the transport organisation to run into losses,” he said.

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.   Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were  asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.     Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More


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