Of the 1,500 buses out on roads daily, only 800 buses owned by PMPML were operational on Friday while about 700 remained off road. This resulted in cancellations on numerous routes causing inconvenience to passengers. The services of Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) were hit on Friday morning as private contractors providing services to the transport body went on strike without prior notice.
Of the 1,500 buses out on roads daily, only 800 buses owned by PMPML were operational on Friday while about 700 remained off road. This resulted in cancellations on numerous routes causing inconvenience to passengers.
“PMPML fleet includes buses owned by the transport body and those provided to us by the contractors. Of the total 1,500, 840 buses are contractual buses. Of these, 782 buses provided by eight different contractors should have been operational today. However, only 90 buses from two contractors hit the roads while the remaining 700-odd remained off road. There are some payment related issues but the PMPML is committed to resolve them,” said a senior official.
Officials said that following the payment demands, the transport body administration on Thursday had released Rs 58 crore as payment.
“We have served notices to the contractors and threatened to invoke the Maharashtra Essential Services Protection Act (MESMA) if the buses don’t return to work,” the official added.
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