Poor state of Pune public bus transport revealed under RTI
15 Jul, 2012An application filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has shed light on the condition of public bus transport in the city of Pune. The parameter of one month's performance was chosen and the comparison was done using the performance of May in last three years. The Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Ltd (PMPML) plies buses in Pune. The figures show that:
- The number of breakdowns of buses has shown a steep increase from 979 instances in May 2010 to 1,238 instances in May 2012.
- 361 buses were off-roads in May 2010 which increased to 610 buses in May 2012. Compared to 361 buses that were off roads in May 2010, the number increased to 407 in 2011, which further went up to 610 in 2012.
- The number of buses in the PMPML fleet have gone up from 1,580 in May 2010 to 1,777 in May 2012
- There has been a decline in the number of passengers using public transport. Nearly 1.5 lakh people stopped using the service since May 2010.
- The number of complaints about the service has gone up from 31 in May 2010 to 522 in May 2012.
- The per bus per day income has gone down from Rs 8,323 in May 2011 to Rs 8,100 in May 2012 while the per km revenue has reduced from Rs 35.09 to Rs 34.31.
The condition of the public transport services in India remain pathetic with poor rationalization of routes and the number of vehicles plying is far less than the demand. Poor passenger load, inefficient management and increased administrative costs have added to the losses of the corporations. The losses are sought to be covered by raising the fare without any concomitant increase in the services.
While the state of affairs of public transport has been discussed above, the condition in other parts of the country remain similar, or may be worse.