Pune railway station flooded after heavy rain, passengers scramble to save luggage

Vikas Deshpande, a member of the Zonal Railway Users’ Consultative Committee (ZRUCC) and Divisional Railway Users’ Consultative Committee (DRUCC), said, “Water is accumulating on the platform, making it slippery and unsafe for passengers, especially children and senior citizens. Passengers are struggling to find dry space, leading to overcrowding in some areas. Many passengers have demanded immediate repairs to avoid further inconvenience and possible accidents.”

Satish Ghadge, an auto driver, complained that many passengers were facing issues while commuting to and from the station owing to waterlogging.

Pune Railway Station on the night of 17 August
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“Although some water has been drained today (Sunday), what if more rain arrives soon?” he asked.

Indu Dubey, Divisional Railway Manager, Pune, said, “The station umbrella gate area is slightly slanted compared to adjacent roads, resulting in water runoff. However, immediately after the issue came to notice, our staff cleared the passage.”

She said that to avoid waterlogging in the future, the railway has sanctioned a 120-metre-long and 1.2-metre-diameter pipeline that will be laid underground below the station and yard using the micro-tunneling technique.

Asked about the water leaking from the roof of platform number 4, Dubey said that garbage and plastic bottles thrown on the roof of the platform by passengers flew into one of the ‘bay valley’ gutters at the platform during heavy rain, reducing the drainage capacity of that bay and causing water to overflow from that bay into the platform area.

“Immediately after overflowing was noticed from that bay valley gutter, staff rushed to the site and cleared the garbage/obstruction from that bay, after which the overflowing stopped,” she added.