Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited

Pune Nagarpalika, the predecessor of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), conceived the idea of a public transport system for the city in the 1940s which materialized when the Regional Transport Office gave its nod for M/s. Silver Jubilee Motors to take up the charge. The service that began with 4 routes with 20 buses already had increased to 46 buses by 1948.[6]

After the transformation of Pune Nagarpalika into PMC in 1950, the civic body took over the service. Pune Municipal Transport (PMT), as it was named after the takeover, started with a fleet of 57 buses that plied on 14 routes.[6]

The public transport provider for the industrial city, Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Transport (PCMT), was founded on 4 March 1974 with a fleet of 8 buses plying between Pimpri and Bhosari. PCMT saw rapid expansion and already by 1988, it had a fleet of 101 buses plying on 13 routes.[6]

A proposal for merger of PMT and PCMT into a unified company to serve the larger metropolitan regions was proposed as early as 1992, when the general body of the PMC passed a resolution supporting such merger.[7] However, the PCMC only considered a merger in 2003.[7] The merger was formally announced in April 2007 and PMPML as it exists today came into being on 19 October 2007.[8][6]

PMPML has been incurring heavy operational losses ever since its formation in 2007.[19][20][21] As per the merger contract, the PMC and PCMC bear 60% and 40% of the losses respectively.[22][23] There have been disputes between the two civic bodies resulting in demands for dissolving the PMPML to form PMT and PCMT as they existed before 2007.[24][25][26]

PMPML is the sole public transport provider for the metropolitan area surrounding the twin cities of Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad with a population of 5,057,709.[5][27] PMPML had a fleet of 1450 buses of which on an average only 1277 were operational.[1] Thus at any given moment, c. 34% of its fleet was off roads, way above the limit of 20% per the norms set by the Central Institute of Road Transport (CIRT).[28][29] This put the ratio of operational buses at c. 27 per 100,000 population. Reasons for these buses being off roads are mainly related to maintenance and frequent breakdowns due to several factors including insufficient manpower and facilities at PMPML depots and lack of preventive maintenance. PMPML also has a number of buses that are owned and maintained by private contractors which also suffer poor maintenance.[29][30][31] Moreover, a significant number of buses in the fleet are older than 15 years while 746 buses are 10-15 years old making them prone to frequent breakdowns.[32][33][34] Insufficient buses inevitably lead to overcrowding on the buses during peak hours with as many as three times the capacity riding a single bus.[35]

To alleviate the problem of insufficient buses, PMPML had decided to buy 800 new diesel buses in 2017 postponing its initial plan of buying 550 air conditioned buses.[36] The decision drew severe criticism regarding the environmental impact of diesel buses. Several NGOs and commuter groups suggested that PMPML should buy CNG buses instead.[37][38] As a result, it was decided that 400 CNG and 400 diesel-run buses would be bought.[39][40] However, CM Devendra Fadnavis insisted that PMPML concentrates on eco-friendly buses in April 2018.[41] As of May 2018, PMPML planned to buy 500 electric air conditioned buses and 400 CNG buses.[41][42]

PMPML does not have sufficient bus depots which leads to as many as half of the buses being parked on the streets in 2015.[43] The drivers have also been blamed for parking haphazardly leading to traffic snarls in the busy areas of the city.[44][45] According to a CIRT report, PMPML needs 18 depots as opposed to 13 in 2016-17.[1][43] Recently, the development of new depots to solve the parking issue has gained some momentum.[46][47] Bus shelters have been criticized for their condition, lack of seats, information, etc.[48][49][50]

In 2017-18, several buses caught fire which has put a big question mark on the safety of commuters.[51][52][53][54] Between January 2017 and March 2018, a period of 15 months, the number of such incidents had reached 16 with almost one incident per month.[55] In an answer to a query submitted under the Right to Information Act, it was revealed that PMPML owns only 124 fire extinguishers and most buses have neither undergone a fire safety audit nor do they have any fire extinguishers.[56] PMPML have claimed that fire extinguishers on the buses are prone to theft.[57][58] PMPML announced that all of its buses and facilities will undergo a fire safety audit and would be equipped with fire extinguishers by end of May 2018.[59][60]