PUNE: A total of 165 buses of the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) that are over 15 years old and are in a bad condition will be taken out of service over the next two months.The decision to not ply the buses has been taken to reduce the operational losses borne by the public transport body. The move is also expected to reduce cases of bus breakdowns.The standing committee of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) approved the payment to cover the operational losses to the PMPML on Tuesday. An amount of around Rs204 crore will be provided to compensate the losses incurred during the financial year 2017-18. The losses have reduced by around Rs6 crore as compared with the 2016-17 fiscal.“PMPML will be given the funds in phases. PMC will give around Rs124 crore, while PCMC will pay its share of Rs80 crore approximately,” said Yogesh Mulik, chairman of the standing committee.“The public transport body has planned a number of steps to reduce the losses. A key option is to do away with buses that have become a liability. The transport body has already discarded 150 buses from the fleet. In addition, 165 buses will be taken off the roads in a phased manner by March,” said a senior PMPML official.The official added that the breakdown of buses has led to traffic jams across different areas of the city. As per PMPML officials, the other step to mitigate losses is to reduce ‘dead kilometres’.PMPML’s data states that on an average 36 buses break down every day. Nearly 1,100 buses suffer breakdowns every month. According to activists, poor maintenance has put the lives of commuters and other motorists in danger.The public transport body has 2,100 buses, of which an average 1,400 buses ply on the roads every day. These buses include those run by the transporty utility as well as four private contractors.

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