Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited have ₹306 crore loss in 2017-18, not a single bus route is profitable

PUNE The Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) has faced loses of ₹306.27 crore operational loss in the financial year 2017-2018. Despite having buses flooded with commuters on some routes, not a single bus route is making profit in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad.

Ambarish Galinde, chief auditor of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) submitted the audit report of the PMPML for the year 2017-2018 to the standing committee and has also raised various objections in the report. The audit department has also suggested various measures to the PMPML in order to improve its financial state. The audit department said that PMPML’s per km expenditure is ₹76.98, on the contrary the income is ₹51.44 per km. This shows that the utility is incurring a loss of ₹25.54 in each km. 

PMPML’s dead mileage (when a revenue gaining vehicle operates without carrying or accepting passengers) is also high. PMPML’s buses have a total 25.86 lakh kms dead mileage in the year 2017-18. The main reason for this is poor planning. The distance between the parking place (bus depot where all the buses are parked) and the starting point of the route is excessive. The buses go empty before starting and ending their daily service. The audit department suggested that PMPML should have proper planning to reduce the loses incurred due to dead mileage.

The audit department said that as per the Central Institute of Road Transport (CIRT) norm the per cent of the off road buses (buses that are parked in the depot or 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 audit report was submitted to the standing committee, however as the PMPML comes under the Pimpri Chinchwad and Pune Municipal corporation, the two civic bodies will bear the loss incurred by the PMPML.

The audit department also pointed out that the figures submitted by the PMPML to the audit department are varied which shows the poor co-ordination in 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.