Pune: Nearly 67 trains will be impacted between Sept 19 and Oct 4 because the Pune Railway Division imposed a mega block for commissioning the third line between Hadapsar and Ghorpadi.Out of these trains, 42 will be cancelled, some on specific dates, and 25 others will be diverted. Railway officials said extensive pre-non-interlocking (Pre-NI) and non-interlocking (NI) work would be carried out at Pune and Hadapsar yards over the span of 15 days, from Sept 19 to Oct 4.They said train operations would be affected due to line unavailability and traffic blocks during the work.Several key long-distance and intercity services will remain cancelled on specific dates. The Solapur-CSMT Siddheshwar Express will be cancelled on Oct 3, and the CSMT-Solapur Siddheshwar Express will not operate on Oct 4. The Nagpur-Pune Express and Pune-Nagpur Express will be cancelled on Oct 2 and 3, respectively.Moreover, the Pune-Solapur and Solapur-Pune Intercity Superfast Express services will remain cancelled from September 19 to 23 and again on Oct 3 and 4. Other affected services include the Nagpur-Pune Superfast Express, cancelled on Oct 3, and the Pune-Nagpur Superfast Express, cancelled on October 4. The CSMT-Pune and Pune-CSMT Indrayani Express services, along with the Deccan Express in both directions, will also remain cancelled on Oct 4.The Mumbai-Kolhapur Koyna Express and the Pune-Mumbai Intercity Express will also be cancelled on Oct 4. Several local services between Pune and Daund are expected to be cancelled on Oct 4 and 5.Besides cancellations, several trains will be diverted, including Karjat-Panvel-Kalyan-Igatpuri-Manmad, Manmad-Igatpuri and Kalyan-Panvel-Karjat-Lonavala-Pune.The disruption has raised concerns among regular commuters, particularly with the festive season approaching and Ganeshotsav just days away. Passengers said the timing of the block could add to the travel chaos because many of us have booked tickets and finalised our travel plans.“People have set travel plans and booked tickets. Sudden cancellations would be a major hassle. In the past too, such blocks have been undertaken during festivals, causing confusion and inconvenience for passengers. Railways needed to give this some thought,” said Ketan Dixit, a regular traveller.Railway officials, however, said the work was necessary to improve capacity and operational efficiency on the Pune-Hadapsar-Ghorpadi section.Meanwhile, Central Railway has announced 34 additional Ganapati Special trains for the Konkan region to meet the surge in festival demand. The additional services include the LTT-Madgaon-LTT special and the Panvel-Chiplun-Panvel MEMU unreserved special.The special trains will run multiple trips during the festive period, giving passengers more travel options amid the disruption caused by the infrastructure work.
