Parisar compared the performance of PMPML with bus service providers in five other Indian cities; BEST (Mumbai); MTC (Chennai); BMTC (Bangalore) and DTC (Delhi). In a previous study titled PMPML Report card, Parisar had quantified the performance of PMPML, which showed how PMPML scored low on all counts. The current study concludes that PMPML also performs considerably worse than other bus systems in Indian cities.
The comparison was based on 3 categories: Quality of Service, Operational Efficiency and Financial Performance.
Each comparison category consisted of many parameters. The following table summarizes the performance of PMPML with respect to other city bus systems under the different parameters of Quality of Service.
It can be seen that PMPML's performance is worse than average on all 6 QoS parameters - indicating why it is considered a very poor service. Its services are irregular, it has too few buses and bus stops, it has too many breakdowns, and its fares are higher than other cities.
PMPML also performs poorly in the operational efficiency category where it fares worse than average in four of the five parameters. It also runs up a financial loss in spite of having one of the higher revenues per km - indicative of its high fares and high cost structure.
This shows that there is a huge room for improvement in the performance of PMPML. Responsibility for this lies both with the current management of PMPML and with the leadership of the city and the state. The current management can introduce some small, but significant, improvements within the existing constraints. However, PMPML can become an effective, reliable service provider to Pune's citizens only if the municipal leadership and the state government also realize that it is an extremely important component of the city's livability, and hence needs to be supported and strengthened.
The report was also extensively covered in the media: