Pune: PMPML declares 16 location and routes for day-night service from Railway Station

Pune: The Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) has declared the routes on which its buses will ply day and night to ferry passengers from Pune Railway Station to other 16 locations within the city.

The PMPML buses have been made operational from Friday (July 24). They will operate from Railway Station to Katraj, Dhankawadi, Sinhagad Road, Kothrud, Warje Malwadi, Vishrantwadi, Lohegaon Hinjawadi, Wakad, Bhosari, Pimpri, Nigdi, Hadapsar, Mundhwa, Kondhwa and Marketyard. For passengers arriving at the Lohegaon airport, five PMPML buses have been arranged to take passengers directly to the quarantine centre from the airport.

Even though the state government has imposed a lockdown in the entire state, the movement of passengers throughout the country is on. The Indian Railways is running 200 trains on several routes and out of it 13 trains are running to and from Pune railway station. Approximately 15 thousand passengers are arriving at the railway station every day.

Since the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) had imposed a strict lockdown in the city, PMPML bus services were not available for common passengers. Only persons engaged in essential and exempted services were allowed to use the PMPML bus service. This was causing major inconvenience to passengers as they had no option for commuting to their destination. Recently, the emergency auto services were also stopped by Pune police. So passengers had demanded that PMPML services should be started on selected routes from the Pune Railway station. The District Collector and PMC Commissioner had instructed PMPML to plan for the routes.

Anant Waghmare, Transport Manager of PMPML said, “We are charging Rs 70 per passenger for these bus services. Three ticket checkers and some employees have been deputed at the Railway station premises to help passengers aboard the buses. In case the passengers increase, then we will increase the number of buses or their frequency as per requirement.”