Pune: Increased rush during Ganeshotsav has prompted Maha Metro to deploy additional staff and ticket kiosks at four Metro stations in the city. These arrangements will kick in from Aug 30 onwards in view of the weekend rush of devotees and late-night trains will also be operational till 2am. The maximum rise in travellers has been witnessed at Mandai Metro station, with footfall doubling on the first two days of the festival. The station records a daily footfall of around 15,000 but on the first day of Ganeshotsav, over 40,000 commuters travelled from here; on the second day, around 24,000 commuters boarded trains. To handle this rush, some preparations have been made. Officials said QR codes have been installed outside entrance points at Mandai Metro station to enable people to purchase tickets without hassles. Dedicated entry and exit points have also been established. People will be allowed to enter the station from the gate near the main entrance of Mandai (the Tilak statue) and exit from the gate near the vegetable market to avoid chaos. Further, an additional entry-exit point besides the existing one will be made operational at Kasba Peth Metro station from Saturday for commuters. This point is located in the Satatoti police chowkey area.A similar practice of setting up QR codes outside entry points and dedicated entry-exit gates will be implemented at other stations if required. Around 2.20 lakh commuters have been travelling by Metro on a daily basis for the last few days and footfall is likely to double next week, an official told TOI. Maha Metro has appealed to passengers coming from the PCMC line to get down at Kasba Peth Metro station to begin visits to Ganesh pandals. For commuters travelling on the Vanaz-Ramwadi line, officials have advised getting down at Civil Court, PMC, and Chhatrapati Sambhaji Garden Metro stations to visit pandals. The appeals have been made to avoid extra rush at Mandai Metro station. Meanwhile, Maha Metro also said all the stations will have adequate security arrangements from Saturday as trains will be operational till 2am. “We are deploying staff till late night at 30 Metro stations operational on two routes,” an official said.
