Railway division takes over maintenance & management of Pune rly station from IRSDC

While the overall works will be taken over by the Pune railway division’s various departments, some parts will be given to the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation

Beginning Friday, April 1, all the cleaning, food stall and maintenance activities at Pune railway station will be taken over by the Pune railway division as the three-year-old contracts made with the Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation Limited (IRSDC) have expired. While the overall works will be taken over by the Pune railway division’s various departments, some parts will be given to the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC).

In February 2019, the Pune railway division had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with IRSDC for the maintenance and management of the Pune railway station. (Shankar Narayan/HT PHOTO)

After the Indian railways closed down its nine-year-old joint-venture with IRSDC in October 2021, it was decided to handover the station development project works to all the respective zonal railways. While for the last six months, it was still carried out by IRSDC workers and now finally, it has been handed over to the Pune railway division and IRCTC.

Manoj Jhawar, Pune railway division spokesperson, said, “Starting midnight April 1, all the management, cleanliness, maintenance, commercial and catering-related works at the Pune railway station will be handed over to the Pune railway division. These works are going to be divided amongst our various departments and some part of these works specially related to catering and food stalls will be handed over to IRCTC.”

“We are all set to take up this challenge to provide better facilities to our passengers, as before IRSDC, it was our workers only who were maintaining the railway station. As train operations are growing, accordingly the passenger count is also increasing and the Pune railway division departments have taken up the work divided as per the category. We will try to give good services once we are in charge,” he added.

In February 2019, the Pune railway division had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with IRSDC for the maintenance and management of the Pune railway station. Under this, various works like housekeeping, electrical and other maintenance of waiting rooms, platform tickets, cleaning of stations, garbage maintenance, parking areas, catering stalls, food facilities, commercial advertising and several other things were being maintained by the IRSDC.

While in October 2021, the Indian railways closed down the entire IRSDC management at 50 railway stations across the country. On the other hand, passengers are expecting better management now at the Pune railway station. Shailesh Kshirsagar, a regular passenger, said, “There was a complete lack of maintenance and at many places, things were not properly maintained at the Pune railway station. Now when the Pune railway division is taking up the work, we hope to get a better railway station.”