Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited to conduct fire safety audit of buses
Updated: Apr 3, 2018, 11:36 IST
PUNE: The Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) has decided to conduct a fire safety audit of its facilities, especially buses.
Addressing newspersons here on Monday, chairperson and managing director Nayana Gunde said that a request for conducting audit has been sent to PMC’s fire brigade department. An eight-member committee of experts will study the buses and submit a report within a week.
“The committee comprises officials from the regional transport office (RTO), PMPML, an expert from Central Institute of Road Transport and representatives of bus companies running the vehicles on contract,” Gunde said.
A response to an RTI query filed by transport activist Rupesh Kesekar recently revealed that PMPML had not carried out fire safety audit of any of its facilities, including buses. It was also revealed that the transport body had not purchased a single fire extinguisher in 2017-18. Earlier, senior officials had claimed that many fire extinguishers had been stolen.
Gunde agreed that maintenance of buses was a problem at present. “One of the main reasons is that staff members are not in place where they should be. I am taking a stock of the situation and will reshuffle the staff so that the right man is in the right place,” she said.
An official said, “Former chairman Tukaram Mundhe had transferred many staff members during his tenure. Men serving in a particular depot for years were transferred to a different depot. Many depots don’t have experts for the required bus type as a result. There are depots with many CNG buses though the CNG expert may be posted at a different depot. This has resulted in lack of maintenance, break downs and fires.”
A meeting between five private contractors and PMPML will take place on Tuesday, Gunde said. She said that it was a matter of serious concern that very few buses of private contractors were on roads at present.
“On Monday, only 424 out of 653 buses of private contractors are running. We want to know why all the buses are not running. The meeting on Tuesday will discuss these issues,” Gunde said.
Source : The Times Of India
