PMPML online bus guide off-track

PMPML staff say there have been no updates in the last three months as they had been waiting for new buses,whose procurement has been delayed. New buses would have meant massive route changes. Senior officials claim timetables will be printed in a few days but city activists are skeptical and say “a few days” is the stock reply of the transport utility.

Deepak Pardeshi,spokesperson,PMPML,said,“We were waiting for new buses to be introduced,which would lead to massive changes in routes. So the website was not updated in three months. Now that there seems to be a delay in introduction of new buses,in the last 15 days we have been working on updating the website. The changes will be visible soon.” Commuter complaints include non-availability of starting and ending stations in a large number of routes. On some routes like Route 28-Bharati Vidyapeeth-University of Pune,no evening timings are available on the website,while on some routes like Route 85E,Kothrud Stand-Ahiregao,the only information given is that services start at 6.30am.

Pointing out other gaps in the timetable,activist Jugal Rathi,said,“There are 105 route numbers not uploaded in the Pune Bus Guide. Another 98 route numbers have suffixes like 1R,1S,85E,113S. This non-uniformity makes it difficult to track these buses on webiste. All this adds to confusion among commuters. The website neither gives a link for the PMP helpline nor displays helpline numbers (24503355/9881495589). There is no clue showing when the website was last updated,so commuters have no idea if it is an updated timetable they can rely on.”

A commuter,who is a student of the University of Pune,however,said,“We as a nation have not yet become so internet savvy and not everyone has internet access. In fact while one is moving on roads and needs to change buses at stops,there are very few who can access internet on phone or on a tablet and plan their day.”

Kishore Gadre,director,Janwani,the agency maintaining the site,said,“We helped build the site two years back and collected the initial data. It has been handed over to PMPML and they are responsible for the content. We only carry out technical maintenance.”

Satish Kulkarni,joint managing director,PMPML is of the view that in the next few days,hard copies of the updated timetable will be available as 10,000 copies are to be printed soon. “We will initially release 10,000 copies,but the prices or where the timetables will be sold have not been decided yet. Various reasons like lack of funds,change in certain routes and introduction of BRT buses caused a delay in printing of the timetable.”

The last bus guide was printed by the transport utility in 1998 .