Pune: Anshul Singh, a resident of Bavdhan, was lucky enough to find a place to park when he came to drop his brother at Pune railway station last week.When he returned to the parking lot after half-an-hour, he saw his car surrounded by other vehicles — all parked haphazardly. “There was no space to move and no one to help,” said Singh, who waited helplessly for around 30 minutes till the driver of the vehicle in front of his car showed up and drove away with his vehicle.Nigdi resident Prakash Shetekar, too, faced a trying time at the station’s two-wheeler parking lot. “The space is too small, and vehicles often topple over each other. The ones managing the parking lot don’t care and, at times, they tell two-wheeler owners to leave the vehicles unlocked so that they can make way for other vehicles. Recently, I parked my bike and found it missing after I returned. When I told the parking attendant that I would lodge a complaint, he initiated a search and found it parked at a different spot,” he said.But commuters looking for relief from parking woes at the station may have to wait for some more time as railway officials have shifted focus to redevelopment of Hadapsar and Khadki railway stations. “At present, work is on pertaining to these two stations. Earlier, RLDA (Rail Land Development Authority) was supposed to carry out redevelopment of the Pune station. The Railway Board recently transferred the project to the Pune division and our Gati Shakti Unit (GSU) will do the work. At present, the planning is on, and no date has been finalized regarding the same,” Hemant Kumar Behera, the divisional commercial manager and PRO of Pune rail division told TOI.Railway officials had said last year that the parking area in front of the Pune station would be overhauled once the redevelopment work of the station starts. Plans regarding Pune yard remodelling are in place since 2016, but little development has taken place in this regard. “Till the two stations (Hadapsar and Khadki) are redeveloped, the groundwork at the Pune station won’t start. Once these facilities are ready, trains will be shifted to these stations so that work on platform extension and other aspects can begin at Pune station,” another railway official said.“We need to first finish the redevelopment work at Hadapsar and Khadki so that yard remodelling project of the Pune railway station can be initiated,” the official said.Pune railway division officials had said in August last year that things would change for the better at the Pune station from this Sept. “A new contract will be awarded with a modern system as per the Railway Board guidelines once the current contract ends in Sept 2025,” Ram Paul Barpagga, the former PRO of the division, now retired, had said.Pune: Anshul Singh, a resident of Bavdhan, was lucky enough to find a place to park when he came to drop his brother at Pune railway station last week.When he returned to the parking lot after half-an-hour, he saw his car surrounded by other vehicles — all parked haphazardly. “There was no space to move and no one to help,” said Singh, who waited helplessly for around 30 minutes till the driver of the vehicle in front of his car showed up and drove away with his vehicle.Nigdi resident Prakash Shetekar, too, faced a trying time at the station’s two-wheeler parking lot. “The space is too small, and vehicles often topple over each other. The ones managing the parking lot don’t care and, at times, they tell two-wheeler owners to leave the vehicles unlocked so that they can make way for other vehicles. Recently, I parked my bike and found it missing after I returned. When I told the parking attendant that I would lodge a complaint, he initiated a search and found it parked at a different spot,” he said.But commuters looking for relief from parking woes at the station may have to wait for some more time as railway officials have shifted focus to redevelopment of Hadapsar and Khadki railway stations. “At present, work is on pertaining to these two stations. Earlier, RLDA (Rail Land Development Authority) was supposed to carry out redevelopment of the Pune station. The Railway Board recently transferred the project to the Pune division and our Gati Shakti Unit (GSU) will do the work. At present, the planning is on, and no date has been finalized regarding the same,” Hemant Kumar Behera, the divisional commercial manager and PRO of Pune rail division told TOI.Railway officials had said last year that the parking area in front of the Pune station would be overhauled once the redevelopment work of the station starts. Plans regarding Pune yard remodelling are in place since 2016, but little development has taken place in this regard. “Till the two stations (Hadapsar and Khadki) are redeveloped, the groundwork at the Pune station won’t start. Once these facilities are ready, trains will be shifted to these stations so that work on platform extension and other aspects can begin at Pune station,” another railway official said.“We need to first finish the redevelopment work at Hadapsar and Khadki so that yard remodelling project of the Pune railway station can be initiated,” the official said.Pune railway division officials had said in August last year that things would change for the better at the Pune station from this Sept. “A new contract will be awarded with a modern system as per the Railway Board guidelines once the current contract ends in Sept 2025,” Ram Paul Barpagga, the former PRO of the division, now retired, had said.
