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Barricaded entrance ramp road gate causing inconvenience to passengers at railway station
The main entrance gate through the ramp at the Pune railway station has been closed causing inconvenience to passengers to board trains
The main entrance gate through the ramp at the Pune railway station has been closed causing inconvenience to passengers to board trains.
As the entrance has been closed by barricades, a huge traffic congestion builds outside the Pune railway station main chowk.
Demand has been made to the railway authorities to open the main entrance with the rising passengers in the facility. Due to the countrywide lockdown, passenger train operations were stopped last year, however at least half of the trains have begun normal functioning in the unlock process.
“Last week, when I had gone to drop my parents off to board the Goa express in the evening it was like a massive traffic jam outside the Pune railway station entrance gate. Long queues of PMPML buses, private cabs, auto-rickshaws standing in the chowk, and huge congestion. For some time, we feared that the train will be missed, but luckily, we somehow managed to enter the station premises just 10 minutes before the train arrival. I think the main reason behind these traffic jams is the closed entrance through the ramp road of the station. If it is opened then passengers will get a big relief,” said Vinay Puranik, a citizen.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, around 200 train operations were undertaken daily at the Pune railway station with more than two lakh passengers using the facility.
After the unlock process started, train operations resumed back from May 2020, and slowly the number of train operations started increasing. Currently, a total of 80 train operations are carried out from the Pune station daily, with roughly 30,000 passengers using the facility.
The Pune railway administration has made an entrance for the boarding passengers from the front side of the station, where the main entrance gate with a ramp road is currently closed. So, passengers are required to enter the station premises from two small entry gates for vehicles.
The arriving passengers need to leave the station from the second exit gate which is on the other side of the station towards the Raja Bahadur Mill Road.
“From the last couple of months, the number of train operations has increased and with it the traffic jam outside and passengers struggling to get an entry inside. The entrance gate of the ramp road which is currently barricaded and closed by the railways needs to be opened so that passengers coming to board the trains will easily get inside. I have seen several passengers who have missed the train due to this mismanagement and traffic jam.” said Suresh Jagtap, president of Pune station’s auto-rickshaw union.
Pune divisional railway manager (DRM) Renu Sharma said, “The ramp road entry gate is currently closed as the number of train operations are less as of now. We will take a review of train operations and passenger entry points and if required the entrance gate from the ramp road will be opened up for passenger entry.”
