Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML)

A PMPML Bus at PMC Bus Terminal
Founded	19 October 2007
Headquarters	Shankar Sheth Road,Pune,India
Locale	Pune Metropolitan Region
Service area	Pune city,Pimpri-Chinchwad &Rajiv Gandhi Infotech Park - Phases I, II & III
Service type	Bus andRainbow BRT
Routes	381[1]
Hubs	Aundh Bhosari Chinchwad Deccan Gymkhana Dhankawadi Hadapsar Katraj Kothrud Nigdi Pimpri PMC Bhavan Pune Railway Station Shivaji Nagar Swargate
Depots	15[1] And 2 Proposed
Fleet	1584 buses[2]
Daily ridership	c.13,50,000[1][3]
Fuel type	CNG & Electric (No more on Diesel)[4]
Managing Director	Deepa Mudhol Munde,IAS
Website	www.pmpml.org

Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Ltd (PMPML) is the public transport bus service provider for the city ofPune, India.

It operates 381 routes around thePune Metropolitan Region including 51Rainbow BRT routes that partially ply on the 4bus rapid transit corridors.^[5] As of mid'22, PMPML became the fleet in the country that only runs on Green fuel with CNG and Electric Buses. Since 2019, PMPML has been operating both 9 and 12 m Electric AC Buses at the same fare as regular buses. PMPML is the only fleet in the country to operate near around 400 Electric buses daily, providing all necessary infrastructures and leading towards most reliable public transport service in the country.

Pune Nagarpalika, the predecessor of thePune Municipal Corporation (PMC), conceived the idea of a public transport system for the city in the 1940s which materialized when theRegional Transport Office gave its nod for M/s. Silver Jubilee Motors to take up the charge. The service that began with 4 routes with 20 buses already had increased to 46 buses by 1948.^[6]

After the transformation of Pune Nagarpalika intoPMC in 1950, the civic body took over the service. Pune Municipal Transport (PMT), as it was named after the takeover, started with a fleet of 57 buses that plied on 14 routes.^[6]

The public transport provider for the industrial city, Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Transport (PCMT), was founded on 4 March 1974 with a fleet of 8 buses plying betweenPimpri andBhosari. PCMT saw rapid expansion and already by 1988, it had a fleet of 101 buses plying on 13 routes.^[6]

A proposal for merger of PMT and PCMT into a unified company to serve the larger metropolitan regions was proposed as early as 1992, when the general body of thePMC passed a resolution supporting such merger.^[7] However, thePCMC only considered a merger in 2003.^[7] The merger was formally announced in April 2007 and PMPML as it exists today came into being on 19 October 2007.^[8][6]

PMPML has a fleet of 2000 buses maintained at 9 CNG bus depots and 4 electric bus depots, which ferry around 900,000 passengers every day. There is no diesel bus running in the fleet. 12-meter electric buses are deployed on all major routes at high frequency. 9-meter CNG buses travel numerous roads, including city centers, and also provide transport to students of PMC schools. Distant towns like Lonavala, Paud, Shirval, Jejuri, Yawat, Ranjangaon MIDC, Junnar, etc. are becoming part of the service. PMPML also provides a special electric bus service toInfosys employees commuting from Pune city and Pimpri-Chinchwad to theHinjawadi IT hub and back.^[1]

PMPML acquired the first lot of 25 electric buses in February 2019 and the second lot of 50 electric buses in August 2019. As of August 2022, the fleet size of electric buses is 395. PMPML also plans to acquire 1000 such electric buses by the end of 2023.^[9]

PMPML operates regular scheduled services daily between 5:30 am and midnight on 371 routes.^[5] The frequencies on individual routes vary greatly according to demand. Certain long-distance routes are serviced only a few times per day.^[10] Some of these routes are partially or fully run on the BRT corridors under the brand nameRainbow BRTS.

PMPML also operates night buses after midnight on 7 routes.^[11] On the occasion ofInternational Women's Day 2018, PMPML launched 'Tejaswini' (Marathi: तेजस्विनी; radiant) bus services exclusively for women which were well received by women commuters.^[12][13] There 218 daily Tejaswini services during the morning and afternoon peak hours on eight of the busiest routes.^[12] PMPML also runs special services for tourists under the name 'Pune Darshan' as well as airport services from Rajiv Gandhi IT Park,Hinjawadi toPune Airport.^[5]

Name of the Service	Description	Manufacturer	Gallery
CNG (Green)	It is a non-AC CNG-led bus service with a green livery for Tata Marcopolo and Ashok Leyland JanBus models..	Tata Marcopolo Ashok Leyland JanBus
CNG (Blue)	It is a non-AC CNG-led bus service with a blue livery for the old Tata Marcopolo and Ashok Leyland JanBus models	Tata Marcopolo Ashok Leyland JanBus
Electric (white)	It is an electric-led bus service with a white livery for the Olectra K9D and K7D models	Olectra K9D Olectra K7D

The following is a list of bus routes operated byPMPML in the vicinity ofPune,Pimpri-Chinchwad, and outer rural areas near Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad.

Single journey tickets are valid for a single trip between any two points. They are issued as paper tickets and are to be bought on board from the conductor. The fare depends on the distance of travel (see table below) and needs to be paid in cash. Children between the ages of three and twelve years travel at reduced fares, called 'half ticket', while no fares are charged for children younger than three. Fares on the night bus services are higher.

PMPML offers daily, weekly, fortnightly, quarterly and annual traveling passes to make journeys convenient for its passengers. Discounted passes are also there for elderly passengers, visually and physically challenged, reporters and freedom fighters. All passes can be obtained both online and offline.^[15] A pass can only be used in conjunction with an identity card issued by the PMPML at a cost of ₹ 20 (+ ₹ 5 for application). As of April 2018, a monthly pass valid for a month on all routes costs ₹ 1,400, while students and senior citizens need to pay ₹ 750 and ₹ 500, respectively.^[16] A day pass valid on all routes costs ₹ 70 and can only be obtained on board.^[17]

PMPML currently has 14 operational bus depots.^[18]

PMPML has been incurring heavy operational losses ever since its formation in 2007.^[19][20][21] As per the merger contract, thePMC andPCMC bear 60% and 40% of the losses respectively.^[22][23] There have been disputes between the two civic bodies resulting in demands for dissolving the PMPML to form PMT and PCMT as they existed before 2007.^[24][25][26]

PMPML is the sole public transport provider for the metropolitan area surrounding the twin cities ofPune andPimpri-Chinchwad with a population of 5,057,709.^[5][27] PMPML had a fleet of 1450 buses of which on an average only 1277 were operational.^[1] Thus at any given moment, c. 34% of its fleet was off roads, way above the limit of 20% per the norms set by theCentral Institute of Road Transport (CIRT).^[28][29] This put the ratio of operational buses at c. 27 per 100,000 population. Reasons for these buses being off roads are mainly related to maintenance and frequent breakdowns due to several factors including insufficient manpower and facilities at PMPML depots and lack of preventive maintenance. PMPML also has a number of buses that are owned and maintained by private contractors which also suffer poor maintenance.^[29][30][31] Moreover, a significant number of buses in the fleet are older than 15 years while 746 buses are 10–15 years old making them prone to frequent breakdowns.^[32][33][34] Insufficient buses inevitably lead to overcrowding on the buses during peak hours with as many as three times the capacity riding a single bus.^[35]

To alleviate the problem of insufficient buses, PMPML had decided to buy 800 new diesel buses in 2017 postponing its initial plan of buying 550 air conditioned buses.^[36] The decision drew severe criticism regarding the environmental impact of diesel buses. Several NGOs and commuter groups suggested that PMPML should buy CNG buses instead.^[37][38] As a result, it was decided that 400 CNG and 400 diesel-run buses would be bought.^[39][40] However,CMDevendra Fadnavis insisted that PMPML concentrates on eco-friendly buses in April 2018.^[41] As of May 2018, PMPML planned to buy 500 electric air conditioned buses and 400 CNG buses.^[41][42]

PMPML does not have sufficient bus depots which leads to as many as half of the buses being parked on the streets in 2015.^[43] The drivers have also been blamed for parking haphazardly leading to traffic snarls in the busy areas of the city.^[44][45] According to aCIRT report, PMPML needs 18 depots as opposed to 13 in 2016–17.^[1][43] Recently, the development of new depots to solve the parking issue has gained some momentum.^[46][47] Bus shelters have been criticized for their condition, lack of seats, information, etc.^[48][49][50]

In 2017–18, several buses caught fire which has put a big question mark on the safety of commuters.^{[51][52][53][54]} Between January 2017 and March 2018, a period of 15 months, the number of such incidents had reached 16 with almost one incident per month.^[55] In an answer to a query submitted under theRight to Information Act, it was revealed that PMPML owns only 124 fire extinguishers and most buses have neither undergone a fire safety audit nor do they have any fire extinguishers.^[56] PMPML have claimed that fire extinguishers on the buses are prone to theft.^[57][58] PMPML announced that all of its buses and facilities will undergo a fire safety audit and would be equipped with fire extinguishers by end of May 2018.^[59][60]

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