Casual approach of drivers, contractors can cost PMPML bus contractors licence

Pune: PMPML CMD Mahesh Awhad on Monday warned private contractors of heavy penalty and even termination of contract in case of a repeat of incidents like Saturday's bus theft because of callousness of their drivers or conductors."In future, any such incidents will be the sole responsibility of private contractors. Heavy fines and even suspension or cancellation of contracts is possible," the CMD said, addressing the private contractors in the wake of the shocking "bus theft" from Dengle Bridge on Saturday.A visibly ‘disturbed' youth from Pauri Garhwal in Uttarakhand on Saturday evening slipped into a spare PMPML bus of a private contractor and started the vehicle with the ignition key left inside it by its driver. He drove through crowded streets for around 1.5km from Dengle Bridge to Good Luck Chowk. Fortunately, no one was injured.The PMPML has a fleet of 2,000 buses. The transport utility owns 700 of these. A total of nine private contractors operate the rest. "For public, all buses are PMPML buses," said Awhad.The PMPML CMD said a training session for drivers of private contractors' buses would be conducted soon at the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy. He said basic standard operating procedures (SOPs) should be followed seriously ) to keep buses safe."Basics like parking buses only in PMPML-designated places and never leaving them unattended while on duty must be followed. All doors, windows and steering should be locked, and keys must be taken away while parking a vehicle," he said."If an untoward incident happens, a preliminary report should reach us within an hour and a written report within 24 hours. I had no information about Saturday's incident until I got calls from reporters. Such a thing shouldn't happen. Having a GPS tracker in these buses is very important. PMPML officers will conduct random checks of buses and any norm violations will be dealt with very strictly," he said."Regular instructions like driving safely, not indulging in drunk driving and proper maintenance of buses have been given. Each private contractor should appoint a nodal officer responsible for looking into all safety aspects without any delay," the CMD said.Either the driver or the conductor should be present in a bus on duty at any given point. "The same has to be applied during duty or shift change. Private contractors should only hire drivers serious about the job. Any driver suspended earlier by the PMPML should not be hired again under any circumstances," the CMD said.