117 buses, from PMC to PMT

PUNE, Nov 30: Taking into account the public need, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) will purchase 117 buses for the cash-strapped Pun...

PUNE, Nov 30: Taking into account the public need, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) will purchase 117 buses for the cash-strapped Pune Municipal Transport (PMT). To raise funds for the purchase, the PMC has decided to deposit Rs 10 crore with the Vidya Sahkari Bank against which a loan at the effective interest rate of one per cent will be drawn.

A special meeting of the standing committee gave the go-ahead to the civic administration’s proposal of providing “ready-made” buses to the PMT. The committee also approved the proposal to acquire the commercial complex within the premises of the PMT’s Hadapsar depot in order to recover the outstanding arrears owed by the PMT amounting to Rs 3 crore.

Standing committee chairman Ramesh Bodke told media persons that the bank executive director Satish Misal had agreed to accept the deposit. Once the new buses are added to the fleet, the PMT’s revenue will definitely increase, Bodke said. However, the PMT will have to pay the amount phase-wise to the PMC, Bodke added The general body meeting had previously deliberated on scrapping 117 buses from the existing fleet of 700, as they were more than 20 years old. The Supreme Court had issued an order directing the Delhi Municipal Transport to scrap all buses more than 15 years old. If the “case law” was applied to all municipal transports across the country, the PMT would have to scrap 117 buses.

However, elected members had protested time and again towards extending financial aid to the PMT which had never returned the amount.