Pune NGO launches petition seeking increase in PMPML bus ridership

Parisar and jhatkaa.org, non-governmental organisations (NGO), on May 13 launched a petition to help increase ridership in Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Ltd (PMPML) buses by 25 per cent by 2020.

The open petition written to Nayana Gunde, chairperson and managing director, PMPML, highlights how vehicular emissions have the highest adverse health impacts, in terms of air pollution.

According to the researchers at Parisar, there is a need to decongest roads by increasing the ridership of PMPML buses. “While Pune’s population is 3.5 million, the number of registered vehicles has reached 3.62 million. Shifting from cars to public transport will help reduce emissions by 65 per cent during peak hours and 95 per cent during off-peak hours,” said Sharmila Deo, who researched on air pollution.

“PMPML ridership for 2018 was 10,02,000. Taking it as the base figure, an increase by 25 per cent will make it 12,52,500. Thus, the ridership will double by the end of three years. The transport utility should calculate the buses needed to match the ridership and ensure that it run on full capacity,” Deo said.

Acknowledging of receiving the petition, Gunde said, “We need 3,250 more buses to our current fleet of 1,500 to accommodate the current population. By June, there will be an addition of 125 e-buses to the 25 we launched in February, followed by 400 CNG buses in July, for which we have issued a work order. We also want to improve the public transportation, but we have to wait for these new buses.”