Feb 25 2015 : The Times of India (Pune)
Citizens hope Rail Budget makes a Pune halt and fulfils promises


Decongestion Of Station, More Trains On Wish List
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new trains, either originating or going via Pune, were promised in the two rail budgets ­ one regular and the other interim ­ presented last year. And as far as promises go, Pune has had a fair run.Five trains have been introduced and travellers from Pune are now better connected to Jaipur, Chennai, Lucknow, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Bidar among other stations that fall in the route.
On the yardstick of expectations, citizens agree five on nine is not a bad score. But, as they await the Railway Budget that will be presented on February 26, they point out that their list of pending demands far exceeds the list of fulfilled ones.
For starters, the four trains promised last year that will improve Pune's connectivity with Delhi, Kolkata, Nagpur and Gorakhpur are pending to be introduced, when they should have ideally hit the rail track before the 2014-15 fiscal ended.
But more important is the city's continued battle with an increasingly cramped railway station that citizens say should have turned into a world-class facility by now.After all, in the 2009 rail budget, then railway minister Mamata Banerjee had listed Pune station among the 50 stations that will undergo a major revamp and developed into world class stations.Railway officials say Delhi's revamp will be taken up for development first on public private partnership, after which work on other stations will start.
Congestion at the station has for long remained an unresolved concern. The railways have mooted a plan to connect the foot over bridges (FOB) at Pune station. While there are two FOBs now, two more have been proposed.Currently , there is a huge rush of passengers during peak hours, who go from the old bridge. Railway officials said that when two additional FOBs are constructed and linked with each other, the almost stampede like situation during peak hours will change.
Some of the projects proposed for Pune at the divisional level, that could potentially decongest the station, are yet to take off. Railway officials say talks are on with the state government for getting land for the proposed rail terminus at Hadapsar, which was mooted two years ago. The ob jective of the new rail terminus is to reduce the passenger burden at Pune railway station as some trains will terminate and originate from Hadapsar.
“There is also no approach road to the station. A preliminary plan has to be made for basic amenities as well as the area for passenger circulation,“ a railway official said.
It remains to be seen if the budget on Thursday speeds past Pune or halts and revisits promises of the past and makes new ones for the future. Railway Pravasi Group president Harsha Shah rued how important metros were getting priority over other important stations, and pointed out the example of the bullet train proposal between Pune and Ahmedabad via Mumbai. The railways have now restricted the survey to only the Mumbai-Ahmedabad section and have left out the Pune-Mumbai corridor.
But there are promises pending to be fulfilled for close to two decades now, with little hope of any of them finding a mention in the rail budget. Former member of the railway users' committee Gulamali Bhaldar said it was in the year 1996 that the railways had announced a new line survey between Chinchwad (Pune) and Roha on the Konkan route. “We need to know the status of the survey. This route is all the more necessary at this point in time as it will go via the fast developing area of Pirangut near Pune,'' said Bhaldar.
Another important route is between Pune and Nashik and the central government has sanctioned a survey , but it is lacking momentum, say those tracking the developments.
“The only connectivity between Nashik and Pune is via Kalyan and Karjat and the journey takes seven long hours, instead of a possible three-hour journey ,“ said a commuter who travels to Nashik on work often.