Pune :Free Buses offered

Authorities of the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) are delighted about an offer received from a Malaysian firm which has agreed to provide 2,500 air-conditioned buses as “royalty’’ to the PMPML in exchange of advertisement rights for a period of 15 years. The proposal by the firm, Landmark Media, will be placed before the board of directors next week.A total of six firms had submitted proposals. Except for one foreign firm, all others are Indian.But their offers are no where close to the proposal tabled by the Malyasian firm. Its offer is the best that PMPML has received.The city transport department had, in mid-April, invited offers from private agencies for getting modern buses as “royalty’’ in exchange of advertisement rights on buses and bus-shelters. As per the proposal, the agency would get the advertisement rights for a period of 15 years.At present, the PMPML has over 1,000 bus shelters in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad. The number of bus shelters would increase to 2,000 as the PMPML has plans to erect more shelters having futuristic designs on build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis. The agency can also advertise on the exterior and interior parts of the buses. Incidentally, some private agencies had come up with their own offers last year in which they had agreed to provide buses in exchange of advertisement rights. While the proposals were kept on hold, district guardian minister Ajit Pawar, who had taken the initiative in forming the PMPML, had asked the authorities to invite competitive bids from private agencies. The authorities felt that advertising with the PMPML would be advantageous because unlike in Mumbai, where there is a good network of suburban railway, in Pune, the only mode of public transport were buses.