RailEnquiry

PUNE: Pune railway station has no space for adding new trains connecting other destinations in the country, said Central Railway General Manager SK Jain. He was interacting with reporters on Friday after his annual inspection of different stations, bridges under Pune Railway Division. Pune railway divisional manager Vishal Agarwal and other officials were also present. “We do not have any proposal to add any new trains from Pune since there are infrastructural constraints this station is facing,” said Jain, after inaugurating the newly revamped platform number six at Pune railway station. He had also kicked off the electrification work between Daund and Pune stations at Loni station. “Pune station serves commuters within a distance of 100 kilometres and the pressure on the station is increasing,” he confessed. Pune station is already saturated - handling over 150 passenger trains - including about 50 trains that originate from and terminate at the station. There are only six platforms to accommodate these trains which is grossly inadequate. Jain said Central Railway is planning to make use of Hadapsar and Shivajinagar stations to originate/terminate some long distance trains so the pressure on Pune station eases. “Our plans are still in conceptualisation stage. I have asked the Pune railway authorities to prepare a plan. We have to create proper infrastructure at these two stations. Moreover, the State government too has to financially assist the railways in these projects,” Jain added. CLEANLINESS FIRST Central Railway has earmarked seven important stations including Pune where a manual is being prepared for the proper upkeep of the station. Jain said at all these stations, the premises have to cleaned and maintained as per the manual. The Additional General Manager, C Rly has been entrusted with the job of preparing this manual and if need be, a consultant could be appointed for it. The other stations include CST, Dadar, LTT, Kalyan, Nashik and Nagpur.