PUNE: Around 700 Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) buses will be taken off the road for election work. These buses will not be available for service on October 21, as the buses will be used to transport the polling officials and electronic voting machines (EVMs) to the respective polling stations.
According to a PMPML official, “Every day, around 1,600 buses are available for citizens. However, on October 21, because of elections in Pune, 699 buses will be used for election duty and as per the requirement, the number might be increased.”
“Even though 699 buses will not be available, there will be no shortage of buses. The PMPML administration will provide 300 extra buses for commuters. On voting day, the passengers can use public transport to go and cast votes. The PMPML buses will transport all the polling staffers and the EVMs to the respective polling stations. The buses will then continue to ply on their respective routes,” said the officer.
“Also, bringing back these polling officials is crucial and we are still coordinating with the Election Commission on this. We have urged the private operators to chip in and provide more buses than they generally ply to keep things in order,” he added.
596 MSRTC BUSES TO BE OFF ROADS TOO
- Around 596 Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) buses will also be off roads on the election day.
- Around 1,000 MSRTC buses are under Pune division. From this, 650 are ordinary buses in the fleet. On election day, 574 ordinary and 22 semi-luxury buses will be off roads. These will be used in the rural part of the district. However, Shivneri and Shivshahi buses will be available for the commuters.
- “The MSRTC buses will transport all the polling officials and EVMs to the respective polling stations. The buses will then continue to ply on their respective routes,” said a senior official of MSRTC Pune division.
