AAP Protests PMPML Fare Hike At Swargate Chowk, Demands Rejection Of Price Increase

On Sunday morning, the Aam Aadmi Party held a massive protest at Swargate Chowk in Pune against the recent fare hike by the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML). The party has demanded that the collector reject the price hike after consulting with passengers’ associations and political parties; otherwise, a more intense agitation will follow.

The PMPML, which manages Pune’s public transport system, has increased the ticket prices. The Board of Directors has decided to increase the minimum bus ticket rate to Rs 10 instead of Rs 5. The daily pass has been increased from Rs 40 to Rs 70, and the monthly pass has been increased from Rs 900 to Rs 1500. This price hike is a hole in people’s pockets.

“The PMPML administration had said that the price hike was to reduce the annual deficit and to make the rates affordable. But due to this price hike, the common man and daily wage workers will be affected and will tend to take private two-wheelers. This will lead to more traffic jams and pollution. Pune being the fourth most congested city in the world, it should be the policy of the administration to make the public transport system efficient and make efforts so that more and more passengers use it. Since 2014, the number of daily passengers has been hovering between 10 and 11 lakh.
Other sources of income should be used more efficiently to reduce the deficit. PMPML and Metro have a tendency to avoid the responsibility of providing end-to-end connectivity for Metro. The administration should remove corruption and inefficiency and bring more buses on the road. This will reduce traffic congestion in the city,” said Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Maharashtra spokesperson Mukund Kirdat.

“Currently, countries like Luxembourg, Malta, France, Italy, and Brazil have a policy of making public travel free. While the municipal corporation is meeting this deficit, that is, indirectly, the general public is paying for it, there is no need to burden the passengers,” added Kirdat.

Pranav Unde, from Sahkar Nagar, a citizen forum member, said, “The bus services in our area are not effective. Earlier, there were only 8–9 buses; now they have reduced the buses in our area and only 4–5 buses are now running. The frequency of the buses is less, and on top of it they have increased the fare. In the Swargate area, they have a lot of buses, but these buses are empty, and areas like Sahkar Nagar have fewer buses but the demand is more. So they should increase the frequency of the buses rather than increase the fare. The buses should be service efficient and profit will increase automatically. I was spending Rs 5 from Saray Society till Swargate, and now they have increased the price from Rs 5 to Rs 10. And to and fro will now cost Rs 20. So the increased prices are a big issue for us.”