Pune: The Pune railway division would be providing two additional pairs of local train services to commuters between Pune and Lonavla from Friday. At present, 18 pairs of train services are provided by railway authorities using electric multiple units (EMUs).

The authorities have been able to add one pair of train services since the speed of EMU local trains would increase from 80 km per hour to 100 kmph from Friday.

The other pair of local train service has been added since the authorities have extended the Pune-Talegaon-Pune EMU up to Lonavla. The EMU leaving Pune at 9 am would go up to Lonavla instead of Talegaon and the same train would return to Pune at 10.25 am.

The train from Pune under the new service would leave for Lonavla at 8.45 pm and the train from Lonavla would leave for Pune at 7 pm.

"Increasing the speed of the EMU local trains would reduce the travel time of the commuters by about 5 to 10 minutes. There was a demand from the commuters to increase the speed of the local trains," said the new Pune divisional railway manager, Vishal Agarwal, on Thursday during his maiden interaction with reporters.

Agarwal was accompanied by additional divisional railway manager AK Gupta, senior divisional commercial manager Alok Badkul, and senior divisional operating manager Uday Bobhate.

Increasing the speed of local trains would benefit over 80,000 daily commuters travelling from suburban areas to Pune every day for different reasons.

Agarwal said that apart from increasing the speed of the local trains, one additional EMU service between Pune-Lonavla-Pune would start from July 1, increasing the total number of trips between the two stations to 42 from 40.

"We have also extended one of the Pune-Talegaon locals up to Lonavla from July 1," Agarwal added. The commissioner of railway safety had given its nod allowing the EMU trains to ply at 100 kmph after the trials were successful.

According to Agarwal, a new weekly train between Pune and Nanded would start from July 1. The train would start from Nanded every Friday at 9.20 pm and from Pune every Saturday at 10 pm. The travel time is about 12 hours.

Moreover, the frequency of the Pune-Jaipur Express would also increase from next month. The train would ply from Jaipur every Tuesday and Saturday from July 2, and every Wednesday and Sunday from Pune from July 3.

Responding to questions, Agarwal said that the circulating area in front of the main entrance of the Pune railway station would be improved. "There is need to increase the space in the circulating area, especially during peak hours when there is huge flow of vehicles to and out of the railway station. We are planning with the city traffic police on this issue," he said.