PUNE: The city-based NGO, Parisar, has written an online petition recently to increase the ridership of Pune buses by 25 per cent.

The main objective was to make the association between vehicular emissions, and air pollution, and how public transport has a role in reducing it. The less private vehicles that are on roads, the less the pollution will be. And to reduce private vehicles, there has to be an accessible, affordable, comfortable and convenient bus service. 

Advocacy officer of Parisar Sharmila Deo has written the online petition and till now received more than 300 supporters. She said, “At present, the ridership on buses is stagnant from 2016. Therefore, our idea is to ask Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Ltd. (PMPML) to double the bus ridership at the end of three years. The ridership for 2018 was 10,02,000. If we take that as the base figure, an increase of 25 per cent makes it 12,52,500. And the ridership doubles at the end of three years.”

“PMPML should be able to calculate how many buses they should have in their fleet. It depends on their management and deployment of buses and routes, how many buses they scrap, how many they repair and are able to keep on the road and many such other things. It is basically in their scope to make a plan and come up with not only the figures on new buses they need but to ensure that they run to full capacity,” Deo added.