PUNE: Despite around 10,000 people being denied a ride daily by Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) buses for not having a full vaccination report or universal travel pass, the transport body has jumped back to its pre-pandemic levels in terms of daily earnings and on-road buses — the fastest this year after cases started declining once more.
“On Monday, PMPML’s daily earnings were Rs1.50 crore — highest in two years. Back on March 13, 2020, the daily earnings touched around Rs1.40 crore. During the third wave, the number of buses was brought down to almost 1,300 from January 10 onwards. However now, we have started running 1,600 buses in all. Compared to the earlier two waves, we have been able to recover the fastest this time round,” said Dattatraya Zende, PMPML’s traffic manager.
In January, PMPML had said that only those fully vaccinated will be allowed to travel in the buses. When asked whether the regulation was still there, another official said, “The regulation still stands and is being followed. When it started, each day we deboarded around 20,000 passengers. Now, the average number stands at 10,000 passengers daily. Quite a few people have started to carry certificates. The regulation doesn’t apply for the students as their vaccination recently started and is ongoing. However, the checks are random as it is impossible to check every passenger. There can be cases in which a passenger is not carrying the certificate and the conductor might have missed them.”
