The Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Ltd (PMPML) is planning to add 1,600 new buses to its fleet in the upcoming year.

Around 600 CNG-based PMPML buses will be added by February 2025, and the remaining buses will be added soon thereafter.

Currently, PMPML has around 1,800 buses, out of which 1,500 buses are on the road and the rest are under maintenance.

Speaking to The Free Press Journal, Nitin Narvekar, Joint Managing Director of PMPML, said, "400 new Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) based buses will be added soon to PMPML's existing fleet. The buses will be procured through the gross cost capital (GCC) model. Moreover, 200 additional buses will be provided by the PMPML with the contributing funds from Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) in a 60:40 ratio."

"Additionally, we have sent a proposal to the Union Civil Aviation and Corporation Minister Murlidhar Mohol for 1,000 electric buses for Pune city. The date has not been fixed yet, but they will be added to the fleet soon in the new year."

Speaking about the growing demand for buses at metro stations, Narvekar said, "Approximately 13 lakh commuters are using PMPML buses on a daily basis. The Pune Metro has also demanded that we add more buses at metro stations across the city. However, we are short of buses, and more buses for the metro stations have not been added yet. But we have sent proposals to the government for more buses. As the number of buses increases, we will deploy more buses at metro stations for the commuters."