PUNE: Recently, passengers of Tirunvelli-Dadar Express barely escaped as some miscreants pelted stone on the train when it was passing through Saswad and Ghorpadi areas. The frequency of such incidents has increased in the said areas. 

However, the railway officials blamed the people residing in the encroached areas near the railway tracks and said they are involved in such incidents.   

A senior railway officer from the Pune division said, “The train Tirunvelli-Dadar Express was passing through Saswad and Ghorpadi when some miscreants pelted stones at the engine and the bogey. The engine driver narrowly escaped the stone and luckily none of the passengers were injured. The Railway Protection Force (RPF) has been deployed on the train, but this incident happened because of encroachment near the railway tracks.” 

Other incidents occurred in Chinchwad and Akurdi and a police complaint has been filed. After the incident, the RPF conducted a survey and found that Dapodi, Akurdi, Chinchwad and Ghorpadi are the areas where a majority of stone pelting incidents happened in the recent past. 

The railway administration received complaints that these incidents occur mostly at night and affect long-distance trains. “Most of the stone pelting incidents take place between Akurdi-Dehu Road-Ghorpadi section. The incident between Saswad and Ghorpadi happened owing to a large number of encroachments near the railway track. Such incidents cause damage to trains. We are monitoring at all levels,” said Manoj Jhawar, spokesperson of Pune railway division.

“We have put up posters in these areas for spreading awareness against stone pelting on local trains and the danger of boarding running trains,” Jhawar said.