18.6.08

Pune:RTA mini buses

The regional transport authority (RTA) is giving serious thought to the introduction of mini buses in collaboration with private players in certain prime areas to improve and encourage prompt public transport services in the city.“We will take this option if the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) — the present public transport system in the city — fails to improve their services,” said Nitin Kareer, RTA president and divisional commissioner. He said the introduction of private players would improve the public transport services within the city, which is the need of the hour. The private players would be asked to introduce mini buses, which would be suitable for the city roads, primarily to cover short distances. In fact, a detailed discussion about the improvement of the local public transport system was carried out at the RTA meeting, said Kareer. The PMPML, at present, is the only public transport organisation in and around Pune. Therefore, it has been asked to bring about immediate improvements in the existing services. Kareer said that a significant rise has been recorded in the number of commuters travelling by the PMPML buses and, at present, over 10 lakh commuters avail the services daily. However, the ticket collection revenue has not gone up in proportion to the increase in commuters. This shows that a large section of the commuters are unauthorised and travelling without tickets or passes. Besides, the expenditure has also gone up by 30 to 35 per cent at every depot. “We have asked the authorities to curb such practices,” he added.he RTA intends to conduct weekly meetings with the PMPML authorities to discuss issues like improvement of services, bringing down losses, keeping a check over the expenditure, along with increasing the revenue and effective regulation, Kareer said.

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