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Coming soon: Afternoon local train for students, ramps connecting all platforms
In a major announcement by the newly-appointed divisional railway manager, Indu Rani Dubey, local train services will soon be started in the afternoon, especially for students travelling daily between Pune and Lonavla for school and college purposes
In a major announcement by the newly-appointed divisional railway manager, Indu Rani Dubey, local train services will soon be started in the afternoon, especially for students travelling daily between Pune and Lonavla for school and college purposes. Dubey also announced that new ramps will be constructed adjoining the new foot overbridge (FOB) that connects to all platforms at Pune railway station.
“As I have recently taken charge and understanding the issues of passengers and also taking a review of various works in the Pune railway division, one issue which was raised was about local train passengers demanding more trains in the afternoon. Hence, will review the current daily local train operations between Pune and Lonavla and accordingly, will soon start one more local train in the afternoon, especially for the benefit of students,” Dubey said.
Currently, there are eight local trains running between Pune and Lonavla in 42 schedules out of which, 21 schedules are from Pune to Lonavla and 21 are from Lonavla to Pune between 5 am and 12 am. Daily, around 30,000 passengers – mainly students and officegoers - travel on this route. While in the afternoon, there are less local train operations when school and college students have to return home. As a relief to the daily passengers, the railways have now decided to start one more local train especially for these students.
Earlier, the Hindustan Times had reported about the inconvenience faced by physically disabled and elderly passengers travelling from the Pune railway station due to the absence of ramps to walk to platform numbers 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. The old FOB - which had ramps for passengers to walk through - was closed last year after cracks were found in its pillars. Also, the proposal to install five lifts at the new foot overbridge (FOB) for elderly and physically disabled passengers is still awaiting official clearance. “We have identified the five locations to install lifts at all five platforms for the benefit of the passengers. But we also plan to construct new ramps joining each platform with the new FOB. It will take some time but we will work on it surely,” Dubey said.
The old, British-era FOB at Pune railway station was built between 1925 and 1930 and connects all six platforms. After cracks and other unsafe points were found in the structure during an audit, the railway administration decided to close it down. This FOB had ramps for physically disabled and elderly passengers to reach all the platforms.
Other than this centrally located FOB which is soon going to be demolished, there are three other FOBs at Pune railway station. One of them towards the Solapur end of the station was built in 2015 while the remaining two, old FOBs are both towards the Mumbai end of the station, with one of them opening on the Raja Bahadur road side. Whereas the new FOB built a couple of years ago is wider and connects all six platforms.
