Crores lost due to transport body’s laxity

Information sought under the Right to Information Act (RTI) revealed that the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Parimandal Limited (PMPML) had to suffer losses to the tune of Rs 7.69 crore for not being strict enough while collecting the penalty amount from the contracting agencies that provide buses and are able to do so. As the contractors fail to provide buses, the administration is forced to withdraw buses from that route.

It has also come to light that due to the irregular provision of the buses, 19,242 schedules could not be completed between April 2007 and March 2008.

Former member of the Pune Municipal Transport (PMT) Suresh Malvadkar had sought the information in this regard. As per the agreement signed in 2004 by PMT and private bus providing agencies, amounts ranging between Rs 3000 and Rs 5000 had been finalised for not providing the buses. These amounts had been curtailed during arbitration, the RTI information revealed.

But Malvadkar said that the laxity in penalising these private agencies has resulted in a loss, which runs into crores of rupees.