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In 2006-07, nearly 5 crore passengers took this route. For 2007-08, from April to November, the number of passengers have already crossed 3.45 crore. Similarly, in the last three years, the Pune Division has seen an increase in its revenue on the Pune-Lonavla track by at least 20 crore. In 2004-05, the revenue made was Rs 225.98 crore, which increased to Rs 247.23 crore in 2005-06. In 2006-07 revenue made was Rs 267.02 crore and from April to November this financial year 2007-08, the Pune Division has raked in Rs 177.76 crore already.
“Out of the 18 stations en route to Lonavla from Pune, maximum passengers go to Pimpri, Chinchwad, Akurdi and Dehu Road because of the industrial belt. Talegaon is popular because it touches the expressway and a developing area,” said Yogendra K Singh, public relations office of Pune Division.
While no new local trains have been introduced in the last three years, this route has seen an increase of five long distance trains - Pune-Indore, Pune-Bhuj, Pune-Ahemadabad, Bangalore-Ajmer and Bangalore-Jodhpur, which have added to the revenue, said Singh.
Meanwhile, the Pune Division is expecting the windfall to continue as the work to upgrade the infrastructure will end by March, after which the time taken to travel between Pune and Lonavala will reduce. “We are introducing automatic signalling similar to Mumbai. When the train enters a station, the signal will automatically turn green, when it leaves the station it will turn red. At present, we have to manually change the signal which is time consuming,” said Singh. “Besides, we are converting from direct current to alternative current which will give better pick up to trains,” he said.
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