Special place for Deccan Queen among Punekars as commuters celebrate train's birthday

Indian Express

01-06-2025

COMMUTERS and die-hard fans of the Deccan Queen, the express train which runs between Pune and Mumbai, celebrated its birthday in style on platform number one at Pune Railway station. The celebrations were held from as early as 6.30 in the morning.
The Deccan Queen on June 1, 2025 completed 95 years and entered its 96th year. The train was started on June 1, 1930. The train, in all these years, had only one major mishap in 1990, when a few bogies had jumped tracks at Khandala Ghat.
'In the initial years, it had seven coaches… Now it has 16 coaches. It is one of the oldest trains being run in the country. It always leaves on time and is therefore highly popular among commuters, especially office-goers and businessmen and women,' said Harsha Shah, president of the Railway Pravasi Group, which every year takes the initiative to celebrate the train's birthday. The train leaves Pune railway station at 7.10 in the morning and reaches Mumbai at 10.40 am.
And it was no different on Sunday as loyal passengers who have regularly travelled to Mumbai from Pune for years and fans of the train gathered ahead of the train's leaving for Mumbai at Pune Railway Station. They decorated the train with festoons and ribbon. The train was garlanded as well. As the crowd swelled and cellphones captured the enthusiastic moment, a cake was cut in the presence of Railway officials, activists and commuters. Some commuters even broke into an impromptu jig as the band in attendance spiked their tempo.
Shah said she was just five years old when she first travelled with her uncle to Mumbai. 'And since then, for decades now, I have always preferred the Deccan Queen or Dakkhan Ki Rani to travel to Mumbai. The train has a dinning car with table service which very few in the country boast of… The passengers who regularly travel have formed a special bond among themselves,' she said.
Speaking about the mishap in 1990, Shah said, 'Deccan Queen has been the safest train for commuters. I do not remember any major mishap with the train except in 1990 when some 10 bogies had jumped track in Khandala Ghat following heavy rain. There were no casualties,' she said.
'I am a fan of Deccan Queen…It is my favourite train,' said another commuter. Shah said commuters who travel by Deccan Queen consider it as part of their family. 'The passengers have a special place for Deccan Queen in their hearts,' she said.
Shah said the enthusiasm among commuters and fans in celebrating the birthday of the train remained intact. 'They all turn up on their own. Each one it seems waits to celebrate the birthday of their Deccan Queen,' she said.
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More