Pune: Commuters stranded as private contractors take buses off roads

There are around 1,500 buses in the PMPML fleet; 650 of these have been leased from private contractors. The contractors pulling the buses off roads led to chaos in the management of public transport service. It also impacted the recently started BRTS route with the buses meant to ply on the route going off roads.

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Five contractors had signed a contract with PMPML to provide 660 buses for public transport. “The contractors pulled their buses off roads without prior intimation to PMPML. This led to inconvenience to commuters and PMPML had to suffer losses of Rs 60 lakh because of it,” said Abhishek Krishna, Managing Director of PMPML.

He said PMPML had urged the authorities to apply MESMA on the contractors as they had caused major problems for citizens. “These contractors should have taken up their issues with PMPML but they never approached us,” Krishna said.

The contractors are paid every 15 days and PMPML has paid all charges till September 15. It is to pay Rs 10 crore from September 15 to 30, he said, adding it can be paid within next 21 days as per the contract.