Security To Be Tightened At Pune Metro Stations After NCP-SP Protest Causes 2-Hour Blockage, Affecting 4,000 Passengers

The Pune Metro is planning to tighten the security measures at all its stations and platforms. This comes after NCP-SP protestors blocked the metro operations for two hours by climbing onto the tracks near the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) station on Sunday.

Speaking to IE, Shravan Hardikar, Managing Director, Maha Metro, said they would make use of Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning. "This would alert us if anyone crosses the yellow line on the metro platform or jumps on the tracks. We will implement this in the next three to six months. However, this will not be enough. We have to find some better way of guarding ourselves from such incidents happening," he added.

Additionally, Maha Metro's safety committee has started a detailed analysis of the incident and is expected to come up with its recommendations in the next few days.

Meanwhile, speaking to The Free Press Journal on Monday, Hemant Sonawane, Executive Director (Public Relations and Administration) of Pune Metro, said they have provided refunds to the affected passengers.

"Pune Metro has processed a refund amounting to ₹5,303 due to the service disruption. A total of 312 tickets have been refunded to affected passengers. Around 4,000 passengers faced difficulties during the two-hour service interruption," Sonawane said.

While speaking to the media, Narendra Pawtekar, one of the protesters, said the protesters were protesting over issues such as better employment opportunities and corruption. "The common man, young boys and girls, should get employment. People spend ₹10 lakh for education, but they have no employment. Outsiders are getting priority in Pune, while our kids should get that priority. Corruption should end; people have to pay ₹10 lakh in donations to get admissions in schools… The Chief Minister should pay attention to this. Ajit Dada is the Guardian Minister of Pune, and I have immense respect for him, but today I am saying that he should pay attention to these things," he said.

However, the NCP-SP later distanced itself from the protest. "Whatever happened was not a party-organised protest. We do not agree with what the karyakarta did. Workers of any party should not protest in a way that causes trouble for the people of the city. Blocking the metro causes an inconvenience to Punekars, and we do not support any such protest," said Prashant Jagtap, NCP-SP's Pune City Chief.