PMPML faces 306 crores loss, needs improvement

PUNE: NP NEWS ONLINE- Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) faced operational loss in the financial year of 2017-18 of 306 crores. Despite having buses flooded with commuters on some routes, not a single bus route is making profit in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad.

The chief auditor of Pune Municipal Corporation, Ambarish Galinde submitted an audit report of PMPML of 2017-18 to the standing committee and raised various objections in the report as well as suggested various measures to the PMPML to improve its financial condition.

The department explained that PMPML’s per km expenditure is 76.98 on the country’s income is 51.44 per km, which shows that the utility is incurring a loss of Rs 25.54 in each km.

PMPML’s dead mileage which means revenue gaining vehicle operates without carrying or accepting passengers is 25.86 lakh km high. The reason behind this is poor planning. There are buses which go empty before starting and ending their daily service as well as the distance between the bus depot to the starting point is excessive for which the department suggested that PMPML should have proper planning to reduce the losses incurred due to dead mileage.

As per the Central Institute of Road Transport (CIRT) norm the % of the off-road buses which includes buses parked and not working due to maintenance would be not more than 15.60 per cent in any transport utility, however it is almost double in PMPML. Total off-road buses per cent is 29.70 in PMPML.

The department also pointed out that the figures submitted by the PMPML to the department varied which shows the poor co-ordination among different departments and there are chances of leakage in the PMPML. For example, the traffic department of the PMPML said that PMPML is running buses on 411 routes and completed 11.38 crore kms running in the year 2017-18. But at the same time the statics department of the PMPML said that buses are run on 302 routes and completed 11.21 crore kms running. Not just that both the departments have disclose different amounts of income. Thus, the PMPML needs to look into this matter.