Earlier, plans for better ublic transport were never mplemented and Pune con nued to have a fleet of old nd ill-maintained buses, ren ering public transport a ightmare on the city roads.

MC standing committee hairman Nilesh Nikam said oney has been given to purhase the buses under Jawa arlal Nehru National Urban enewal Mission (JN URM). According to the roposal, he said, the MPML will purchase 400 NG-run semi low-floor uses and100 diesel-run low oor buses.

The total cost for the purhase of the buses is Rs 162 rore with financial assistance f Rs 81 crore from the Union overnment, Rs 32 crore from he state government and Rs 9 crore from the PMC.

"The PMC has already reeived Rs 40 crore from the entre. The standing commitee has approved Rs 96 crore, ncluding Rs 56 crore from the MC," he said. Under JNNURM, 50 per cent contribution will be by union government, 20 per cent by state government and 30 per cent by the respective civic body.

A total of 1,722 buses are run by the PMPML in the city of which 1,296 are owned by the public transport while 426 buses are hired.

"We are happy that the PMC has approved the money to purchase the buses. We will make an attempt to get all the 500 buses on road within next two months," said Shirish Karle, chairman and managing director (additional charge) of PMPML.

The central government has sanctioned 650 buses for Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad under the JJNNURM, of which 500 buses were allotted to PMC and 150 to PCMC. "The 500 buses should have been inducted in December. However, that could not happen due to fund shortage," Karle said. The PMPML has decided not to push for air-conditioned buses under JNNURM but under public-private partnership.