A workshop was conducted on 20th June 2009 at the Central Institute for Road Transport (CIRT) located at Bhosri near Pune. Two major issues were discussed at the workshop: Public Private Partnership (PPP) in bus purchases and the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems being developed in the cities of Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad. Parisar was an invitee to the workshop.
The workshop was co-sponsored by the World Bank and PPPIAF, the Public Private Partnership Infrastructure Advisory Facility. Presentations were made about different models of PPP, with the two major kinds of models being a) area contracting where different areas of the city are given to specific private operators and b) route contracting where specific routes were given to different contractors. The merits and de-merits of each were also discussed. In addition, different models of royalty payments and/or profit sharing were also presented and discussed, such as gross-cost basis, net-cost basis, royalty payments etc. Other issues such as the need for an UMTA, and the possible dual role of PMPML as a regulator and as an operator were also discussed.
The afternoon session consisted of presentations on the designs of BRT systems of Pimpri Chinchwad (PCMC) and Pune (PMC). While the PCMC BRT is being designed by ITDP, the PMC BRT is being designed by IL&FS. Naturally, it turns out that the two designs do not integrate well, though both BRTs will be operated by a single operator - namely PMPML. Parisar members voiced their concerns that such a dis-integrated BRT will serve both cities poorly to the officials, consultants and experts present.
As a follow-up Parisar has also sent a letter to the Commissioners of PMC and PCMC, and the CMD of PMPML, along with copies to officials of the concerned central ministries at the state and centre, listing its concerns about the way BRT is developing in the two cities.This letter can be found here.
A news report on the workshop can be found here.