Pune Metro station’s name is creating confusion, must be changed, say commuters

The five km stretch from Pimpri to Phugewadi was launched last week. The “Bhosari station” has especially caused a lot of confusion among commuters. While the station is located in Nashik Phata along with the Pune-Mumbai highway, it has been named as “Bhosari station.” Bhosari is a suburb of the industrial city of Pimpri-Chinchwad and is located at least 5 kilometres away from Nashik Phata.

Sachin Rangdal, a resident of Bhosari, said last week his relatives who boarded the Metro train at Pimpri-Chinchwad, had to waste a lot of time, money and energy after learning that it was not headed to Bhosari. “Our relatives boarded the Metro train at Pimpri. They were told that the Metro train goes to Pimpri. One station later, they got down at station as the fellow commuters told them that Bhosari station had come,” he said.

Rangdal said his relatives then found that the station they got down had nothing to do with the suburb of Bhosari. “It was actually the Nashik Phata area. They then had to take an autorickshaw to Bhosari, which is five-six kilometres away from the Nashik Phata area. They had to pay Rs 150 for the five-km ride. Before that, they had to shell out for the Metro ticket. They lost a lot of time and energy due to this wrong naming of the Metro station,” Rangdal said.

Rajesh Mote of the Patit Pavan Sanghatana said, “We have taken strong objections to the naming of Bhosari station, which is causing confusion among commuters. MahaMetro should change this name. Also, they should be careful in future about naming the stations.”

Residents of Kasarwadi have also raised objections to the location of other Metro stations. “The Nashik Phata station is located a kilometre away from where the residents live. Similarly, the Kasarwadi station is also more than a kilometre away from the busy suburb. The college student can walk up to the station. But what about the senior citizens and ailing? How do you expect them to walk along the congested Pune-Mumbai Highway? Asked Jayant Kariya, one of the coordinators of the Kasarwadi Citizens Forum. “The locations of the stations are wrong. The Metro should make autorickshaws available for the senior citizens.”

When contacted, MahaMetro spokesperson Hemant Sonawane said, “We are thinking of changing the name of the Bhosari station… It will happen soon.” Metro officials also said people will have to make arrangements for dropping senior members of their families at the Metro station as they did for local train stations.