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PMPML will allot 300 electric buses to Metro feeder service | Pune News

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Pune: The Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) will procure 450 new midi e-buses by this year-end and around 300 of them would be used for a feeder system for the upcoming Pune Metro project, a senior official from the transport body said.
With the Centre approving additional procurement of e-buses under the faster adaption and manufacturing of e-buses in India (FAME-2) scheme for nine cities including Pune, the PMPML chairman and managing director Rajendra Jagtap told TOI that the modifications in the subsidy under the scheme had given them the opportunity to go for more number of e-buses.
“Now there is a scope for more number of electric-run buses for the city. At present, the PMPML has a fleet of 150 such buses and orders to procure 150 more under the FAME-1 scheme and 350 more via the municipal corporations has already been given,” the CMD said.
The FAME-2 modifications, which were announced by the Centre earlier this month, call for aggregation of e-buses and electric three-wheelers. The Centre decided the aggregation would be via energy efficiency services limited (EESL) agency.
“In the last six months, we have had four meetings with different authorities including the MahaMetro regarding the integration of PMPML and the Metro. A total of 450 additional e-buses would be joining the fleet by the end of this year. For the feeder facilities, the buses expected to join the fleet would be 8 to 9 metre-long. Of the 450 buses, the feeder service would need a maximum of 300 buses and the remaining 150 would be used for PMPML’s ATAL bus service,” the CMD said.
When asked whether the Metro stations would have adequate parking facilities for the feeder service, the CMD said that the Metro stations had earmarked parking for the buses in their design. “The buses under the feeder service would be small. Hence, a huge parking space would not be needed. Besides, the Metro stations have the parking feature in their design,” Jagtap said.
The ATAL bus service was launched last year. It comprises midi buses meant for travelling short distances of around 5km at a Rs5 fare. These small buses connect the commuters to buses running on longer routes. At present, over 150 buses under the service were active.
“Considering the increase in the number of commuters using the buses, we started 10 new rural routes from Sunday. The bus stops have been identified and the buses will be available at 30-minute intervals. Some of these routes include Hadapsar-Warwand, Pirangut-Hinjewadi, Bhosari-Manchar, Deccan-Mutha, among others,” the senior official said.

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