Pune: Addition of 2,640 new buses by the year-end will not make much of a difference to MSRTC’s fleet as almost an equal number of old buses will be scrapped, transport officials said.Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) has around 15,663 buses at present.Senior officials of the state transport body told TOI that after procurement of new Lal Pari buses, the capacity of the fleet will be around 16,000.“Many buses will be scrapped as and when new buses arrive. Of these 2,640 buses, we have already received 1,732, which resulted in a slight increase in the size of the fleet. However, scrapping old buses is unavoidable,” Abhijit Bhosle, the public relations officer of MSRTC, said.Before the phased arrival of these new buses, the fleet size of MSRTC was around 14,000. MSRTC desperately needs around 22,000 to 23,000 buses to adequately cater to commuters across the state. According to the state’s economic survey report 2024-25, the average daily passenger traffic of MSRTC is 58.69 lakh compared to 55.49 lakh in 2023-24. In comparison, the fleet size in 2024-25 stood at 15,560 against 15,760 in 2023-24.“We need to scrap about 1,500 to 2,000 buses. As per MSRTC’s regulations, buses that complete 15 lakh km need to be scrapped. Owing to the slow procurement of buses, the policy was revised, and earlier buses that completed 9 years of operational service or operated 9 lakh km were scrapped,” an MSRTC official said.Somesh Dixit, a Pune resident who often travels to Mumbai, Ahmednagar, and Solapur for work, said that delay in procurement of buses was very frustrating. “These days, the buses are never on time. Last month, I went to Ahmednagar and the bus that was supposed to leave Swargate at 4 pm arrived at 4:50 pm. I am seriously considering switching to private buses now,” he said.Another MSRTC official said that the delay in getting e-buses, totalling 5,150 at present, had affected their operation. “We should have received all the e-buses by now. However, we only have 220 e-buses. In a meeting last week, the transport minister told Trans EV, the company set to supply the buses, to adhere to the new timeline — 625 buses in 2025, 2,100 buses in 2026, and the rest in 2027. The revised timeline will not be enough to fill the deficit,” the official said.A few days ago, the minister had announced that the contract with the company would be terminated. Officials said that the conversion of seven Shivshahi buses into regular buses had been started at Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar depot. “These transformed buses will soon be out on the road, and based on their performance, further steps will be initiated,” the PRO said.
