Ensuring uniform uniform pricing and safe commute for people with last-mile connectivity, the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Ltd (PMPML) is planning to launch an electric-cabs (e-cabs) service in the city. However, the PMP Pravasi Manch, an organisation of PMPML commuters, said authorities of the public transport service first need to improve its existing service instead of launching a new one. “PMPML has been providing service to the public from one bus stop to another. However, there is also a need to provide service to passengers for last-mile connectivity as passengers face has to further take efforts to reach to and fro from bus stops to their point of destination. The PMPML plans to overcome this gap through e-car service,” said Laxminarayan Mishra, chairman and managing director of PMPML. The private cab services are already operating in the city and providing the door to door commuting service, he said. “The private cab operators have a high rate for commuting and the PMPML plans to provide the same at an affordable rate. The autorickshaws are out of control and violate the regulations by charging passenger fares as per their wish irrespective of the meter based fare. The PMPML cab service will be on a flat rate,” he added. The e-cab facility will be round the clock and would be a big help to senior citizens and women, Mishra said. “This will also attract two-wheeler riders and also private four-wheeler users for a safe and easy commuting in the city,” he added. “The dedicated 24 by 7 service will be in the operational area of PMPML and will also have Pink Women Cab with female drivers. The government-run service would provide faith and assurance to passengers,” he said. The PMPML has already received proposals from five agencies and soon a financial bid would be opened to decide the agency to operate and maintain a fleet of electric cabs on a contract basis for five years, Mishra said. The safety of passengers would be ensured through compatible e-vehicle equipped with panic buttons and its availability would be assured at key locations of the airport, railway stations, metro stations and marketplaces. There will be Pune Darshan and Pimpri-Chinchwad Darshan services as well as dedicated E-Cab operations for religious occasions and national holidays. “The PMPML also plans to provide concessional fares for handicapped and old age citizens while there will be uniform pricing in peak and non-peak hours,” said Mishra. The PMPML has assured 120 km of operations per day per cab while the operator will have to give Performance security to ensure effective service. It has also clarified that the operator would be penalised for non-maintenance of vehicle, improper behaviour of drivers, inefficient service and failure to ensure at least 80 per cent availability of e-cabs on daily basis. The operations of e-cabs under the project will be on round the clock basis and run in shifts considering the period of charging. The operator is required to deploy minimum of two drivers per day per e-cab with adequate spare capacity to ensure efficient operations. The operator will be responsible for developing, operating, and maintaining the dedicated mobile phone app for the e-cab service of PMPML with features to display the live location of the e-cab, history of booking, details of payment, ride booking through a secured network, feedback, and rating mechanism and grievance redressal. Thirty per cent of the total number of deployed e-cabs shall be dedicatedly always deployed for plying women passengers during the contract period. These dedicated e-cabs will have separate branding to be provided by PMPML to the operator. Jugal Rathi, the convenor of PMP Pravasi Manch, said the PMPML authorities' lack of willpower to improve the public transport bus service despite repeated demands have failed to meet the expectations of citizens. “The PMPML bus service is very inefficient and it has not a single route that can provide effective service to citizens. All the initiatives, including the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) and Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITMS), by spending crores of rupees have gone waste due to the inefficiency of the PMPML authorities. Citizens have lost confidence in PMPML and there is a fear that the proposed new initiative will also have the same result,” he said. Rathi said that the PMPML should first improve the performance of its bus service and then take up a new initiative otherwise, it will merely remain an act of publicity. The PMPML, a special purpose vehicle jointly owned by Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and neighbouring Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), operates the public bus transport service in the Pune Metropolitan region covering 1,900 km and has a fleet of 2,200 buses.
