Overburdened Pune railway station to get facelift

The Central Railway (CR) plans a major infrastructural revamp of Pune railway station in lieu of the ever-increasing rail traffic and influx of passengers.u00a0Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a press conference, CR General Manager (GM) S K Jain said that they plan to build elevated platforms for buses plying from the depot, which will have connecting skywalks and foot over Bridges (F0Bs), on the lines of bus depots in Thane and Andheri (Mumbai).u00a0

"We are trying to coordinate with local bodies like the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) for the project," he said.u00a0The plan includes ramps for buses to climb and descend from the elevated decks and an auto stand right below. Effectively, the auto stand will come in the place of the Pune station bus depot, which currently has a stand on Maldhakka Road, infamous for traffic snarls.u00a0

Jain, who assumed office a fortnight ago, was on an official tour of all major stations under CR's jurisdiction. An important announcement made by Jain was about extending platform No. 6 on the stations to accommodate 32 coach trains.u00a0

"The project has already been approved and will be completed by March next year. About 187 trains ply from Pune everyday and the traffic has reached a saturation point. We are logging the daily train movements and other important statistics to mitigate the congestion and augment services," said Jain.u00a0

Talking about the revamp plan, Jain said that in other cities like Thane and Mumbai, the CR was coordinating with agencies such as the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and completed several RoBs and other infrastructure.u00a0

"Such coordination has been lacking in Pune. We are work in close collaboration with these local bodies. The only way to reduce congestion is to go elevated like we did in Thane and Andheri in Mumbai. We are planning to build the bus depot on the parcel depot at the fag end of the first platform," he said.u00a0

Jain also added that around 56,000 railway vacancies were also approved to be filled inu00a0a recent meeting with Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi," he added.