Pune-Lonavala suburban local services completes 46 years, but Pune to Daund suburban local services still awaited

Pune’s suburban railway network’ also known as Pune – Lonavala Local completed 46 years on March 11, 2024. If we look at the history of the last 46 years, Pune has never got a new EMU rake fresh from the factory. Currently, the passengers are travelling from Pune to Lonavala on the old rake given to Pune which was earlier used in the Mumbai suburban. However, now passengers are expecting that Pune will get a new Bombardier or Medha EMU rake this year.

Mayureshsinh Javeri, Pimpri-Chinchwad Railway Union said, “In this year too, it is necessary to introduce Bombardier or Medha EMU Rake in Pune Suburban by Railway Administration which will speed up the journey and save 15-20 minutes, now currently Pune-LNL section has completed work of Automatic Block Signalling (ABS) so there a need to increase the frequency of local train.”

Adv Kripal Paluskar, ZRUCC Member Central Railway said, “During the 124th Zonal Rail User Consultative Committee, it was proclaimed by the General Manager of Central Railway that a proposal had been sent by the Central Railway Headquarters to Railway Board for declaring the Pune-Daund as Suburban Section but still approval is awaited.”

As per further information shared by Pune Gramin Railway Pravasi Group, the suburban EMU Local service started on March 11, 1978, between Pune and Lonavala, initially 7 coach EMU Local ran then 9 and now 12 coach EMU Local runs. Before the Pune-Lonavala local service started, passengers used to travel by other mail express. At that time, it took 2-2.5 hours to cover the distance of 64 km from Pune to Lonavala.

However, after the introduction of Suburban EMU local services on 11 March 1978, the travel time was reduced to 1.5 hours. As a result, the local service was well received by the passengers. But now it is necessary to expand this Pune Suburban Railway Network. Even between Pune and Daund, passengers, students, workers and businessmen travel by train in large numbers, but due to the lack of suburban EMU local services on this route, passengers are facing a lot of trouble, Presently passengers have to travel by DEMU/MEMU only which takes around 1.5 hours to cover 75 km but keeping in view the increasing population and urbanization, the Pune Suburban Railway Network should now be extended up to Daund and it is very necessary to start the Suburban EMU Local Service between Pune and Daund as well.

• Some landmarks of local trains:

✓ From 1978 to 2007-2008 Pune Local was running as a DC (Direct Current) Local.

✓ Pune got BHEL’s rake in 2009-2010.

✓ AC (Alternate Current) EMU started running in 2014-2015.

✓ From 2015 to 2018 locals started running using Retrofitted Rakes.

✓ From 2018 till now 3-Phaser Siemens EMU Rake has been running between Pune and Lonavala.

Ram Paul Barpagga, PRO, Pune Railway Division said, “Regarding the Suburban local services expansion, the concerned commuters can inform the Central Railway Ministry regarding this, after which, if we get the order of expanding the suburban local train services to Daund or increasing the train frequency, we will surely implement it.”