Close on the heels of its older sibling BEST, the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) has announced that it will increase it bus fares, the first fare hike since 2014. Earlier, there were 40 fare stages up to 78km with a fare increment every two kilometres. Under the new fare structure, there will be six stages for the first 30 km with fares going up every five kilometres, and for the next 50 km, there will be five stages with a fare increment every 10km, totalling 11 fare stages.
The new fare structure, shared by PMPML is as follows:
Under the new fare structure, daily pass rates have been revised to ₹70 for a unified pass across both city areas. For the PMRDA area, the pass rate has gone up to ₹150.
According to a report in The Free Press Journal, the new system also aims to promote digital ticketing, namely integrating PMPML ticketing with the Maha Metro-HDFC Bank One Pune Card which is an exclusive NCMC (it works in other cities but other cards won’t work on the Pune Metro). I hope that PMPML does not make it an exclusive system either and accepts all NCMCs.
Also Read: NCMC: An Open Letter To NPCI And Several Transport Operators
Getting PMPML buses onto the NCMC platform is indeed good news as it goes a long way in promoting a common mobility card, something that makes a lot of sense in a city like Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad.
Featured Image: Conductor selling tickets with a Ticket Machine (Image animated using Google Gemini)
