Minis to take on large autos in Pimpri and Chinchwad

PUNE, March 5: In a move to counter six-seater autorickshaws, the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Transport (PCMT) has drawn up a plan to add min...

PUNE, March 5: In a move to counter six-seater autorickshaws, the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Transport (PCMT) has drawn up a plan to add mini-buses to its fleet in the next financial year. The draft budget for the year 1998-99, presented today by PCMT general manager Mohan Thombre, has put the issue of purchase of buses on priority.

The Rs 28.88 crore budgetary outlay has a deficit of Rs 25 lakh. No hike in passenger fare has been contemplated, but a hike in spare parts, oil and diesel prices during the year would force the transport organisation to go for a fare hike, Thombre informed newspersons. The budget was presented to transport committee chairman Vilas Kamthe who later announced that it will be discussed and approved at the meeting on Friday.

Nearly 89 per cent of the PCMT revenue was earned through passenger fare, but over the last two years PCMT has been facing financial loss as a major chunk of the revenue was taken away by six-seater autorickshaws. As there is no immediate possibility of a banon six-seaters, Thombre said that getting mini-buses was the best alternative. The PCMT is to get a financial assistance of Rs 5.5 crore from its parent organisation, the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) for purchase of 60 buses. Thirty of these will be mini-buses and will ply on all internal routes within the twin township, Thombre said. He hoped that the financial loss which was about Rs. 80,000 per day would be reduced by half, with the plying of the mini-buses. The buses would be available by the end of the present year, he said.

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Although the number of new buses would increase, old buses will be scrapped because of which the fleet would not be strengthened. The PCMT recently inducted 30 buses in its fleet, which resulted in an revenue increase of Rs. 15,000 per day. The PCMT at present has 175 buses in its fleet.

The PCMT will introduce services from all major areas of the city to the new State Transport bus depot at Vallabhnagar. The PCMT bus depots at Sadgurunagar and Rahatni will beopened by June.