Pmpml Pune Bus Commuter Issues No Shelters Tracking App Mahesh Awhad Fleet Expansion

ly afford. “Out of frustration, I end up taking an auto-rickshaw to PMC,” says the 27-year-old, who works at a government office in Shivajinagar and earns around Rs 12,000 a month. “That expense adds up.” Chatre is not alone. Across Pune, commuters who depend on the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) bus network say the service is failing them in daily ways, through long waits, unreliable schedules, an inaccurate bus tracking app and inadequate infrastructure at bus stops. At the Kulkarni petrol pump bus stop near Pantancha Gate in Sadashiv Peth, Sarjiram Muktaram Londhe, 72, waited under the open sky during a recent commute. The stop had a sign displaying route information but no passenger shelter. A Kothrud resident who runs a clothing shop near Tulshibaug, Londhe travels daily on a PMPML bus pass, but says even flagging down a bus is unreliable. “When we wave our hand to signal the bus to stop, it doesn't stop. Sometimes, it just drives right past us,” he said, adding that bus frequency and stop infrastructure both need urgent improvement. Unreliable schedules compound the frustration. Siddhant Shinde, a fourth-year student at JSPM in Katraj, said buses on certain routes frequently fail to arrive as scheduled, leaving commuters with no reliable information on when the next one might come. The PMPML mobile application, intended to provide real-time tracking, has drawn particular criticism. A 19-year-old student at Modern College said the app regularly shows incorrect bus locations, making it difficult to plan his daily commute. “It doesn’t show the correct location of the buses,” he said. A 26-year-old software professional who commutes between Khadki and Gokhale Nagar said the gap between the app’s estimated and actual arrival times could stretch beyond 20 minutes. In one recent instance, the app showed a bus arriving at 6.08 pm; it had still not reached the stop by 6.30 pm. Commuters across these routes have called for more buses on busy corridors, better shelters at stops and more accurate real-time information. Responding to the issues, Mahesh Awhad, the newly appointed Chairman and Managing Director of PMPML, said, “Of roughly 9,000 bus stops across Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, only 1,500 currently have shelters, while the remaining 7,500 consist of nothing more than a pole with a signboard. These stops would be upgraded through a public-private partnership (PPP) model. In exchange for providing high-tech stops, the company will be granted advertising rights for 15 years.” “A total of 1,500 new buses, comprising 1,000 owned by the organisation and 500 under the GCC (gross cost contract) model, will be added to the PMPML fleet by the end of this year. Additionally, another 1,000 buses are set to join the fleet by 2027 under the central government’s PM e-Drive scheme. Routes with daily ridership exceeding 2,000 passengers are also slated for increased frequency, with a demand-based deployment model under consideration,” he added.