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This is an archive article published on February 1, 2018

Talegaon station protest: After commuters block local, Railways says will ensure punctuality of train in peak hours

The commuters said the local train gets delayed as the railways give priority to express trains, which are allowed to pass first.

Talegaon station protest Commuters alleged that the Pune-Lonavala local train is delayed often as express trains are allowed to pass.

AFTER angry passengers blocked the 8.20 am Pune-Lonavala local train for half-an-hour on Wednesday protesting against frequent delays due to passage of express trains, officials of the Pune Division of the Central Railway “have decided to make all efforts to run the local trains on time.”

“We will take up all efforts to ensure that Pune-Lonavala local trains are punctual and delays are avoided,” said railway spokesperson Manoj Jhanvar. As many as 1.35 lakh commuters travel by Pune-Lonavala local trains every day and the trains make 42 up and down trips.

On Wednesday, passengers infuriated by frequent delays, blocked the train at Talegaon station for about 30 minutes. The train leaves Lonavala at 8.20 am every day and is supposed to reach Talegaon at 8.45 am. “However, like every day, it got delayed by half-an-hour. It started at 8.45 and reached Talegaon at 9.20 am,” said a commuter.

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After the blockade and assurance by station officials, the train left at 9.45 am. The commuters said the local train gets delayed as the railways give priority to express trains, which are allowed to pass first. Gulam Ali Bhaldar of Chinchwad Pravasi Sangh said every day, hundreds of office-goers travelling to Pimpri-Chinchwad and Pune and college students get late. “Express train passengers do not have an emergency situation. Whereas, the office-goers and college students have to reach their respective destinations on time. It is a daily nightmare for them. Yet, the railways give precedence to express trains disregarding the travails of the local commuters,” he said.

The Central Railways has promised to mend ways. “The train got delayed from Lonavala station, which is under our Mumbai Division. However, we ensured that the local train got priority over express trains and saw to it that the train reached Pune station without any delay,” the railway spokesperson said.

The railways said in view of the protests from the commuters, it will try to ensure that all local trains are punctual. “The Pune-Lonavala route will be tracked by a team of officials. We will try to ensure that peak hour trains do not get delayed because of express trains. The trains will get priority over express trains so that office-goers and college students are not incovenienced,” said Jhanvar.

The Chinchwad Pravasi Sangh said to ease the situation, the railways should introduce Pune to Chinchwad local trains, which carry maximum number of passengers. “If not from Chinchwad, then they can introduce Pune to Dehu Road local trains that will increase the frequency of local trains and ease the pressure on buses. There will be local trains available every 10 to 15 minutes,” he said.

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Reacting to the suggestion, the Central Railways said if they receive such a proposal, it will be forwarded to the railway headquarters that takes decisions in such matters. Meanwhile, the railways said because of a mega block, two local trains leaving Pune station at 12.15 pm and 1 pm have been cancelled for a month.

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.   Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were  asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.     Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More


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