Pune: The Pune city police have prepared a proposal to increase the number of police chowkis from the existing 110 to 135. The move aims to improve ground-level policing and ensure that citizens can access police services more easily.
The proposal has been submitted to the state home department and was revealed by Pune Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar on Tuesday. The plan was prepared after reviewing the city’s changing crime situation, rapid expansion, population growth, rising traffic movement and development of new residential areas.
According to police officials, Pune’s expansion over the past few years has created a need for more police presence, especially in newly developed areas. Several outer areas of the city, including Manjari, Narhe, Lohegaon, Laxminagar, Yeolewadi and Undri, have seen major growth with new housing projects, commercial spaces and IT developments.
Currently, Pune city has 45 police stations, and many of them handle large areas spread across suburbs and growing neighbourhoods. Police officials said that each police station should ideally have at least three operational chowkis to provide faster services and better monitoring.
“The jurisdiction of many police stations has become very large. Having more chowkis will help us improve public contact and ensure quicker police response. The proposal has already been sent to the home department, and we are waiting for approval,” Commissioner Amitesh Kumar said.
Officials said the proposed increase will also help police deal with changing crime patterns, rising cybercrime cases, property-related offences, traffic issues and law-and-order situations during public events. The new chowkis will work as the first point of contact where citizens can approach police for complaints, emergency support and basic assistance.
The expansion is expected to reduce the time taken by police to reach incident spots and improve regular patrolling in both residential and commercial areas.
Police officials also pointed out that some existing chowkis had become inactive due to manpower issues and administrative reasons. After a review, Commissioner Kumar instructed officials to restart such chowkis and make them functional again.
“The revival of closed chowkis has helped citizens connect with police more easily. People can now access police assistance without travelling long distances,” Kumar said.
The proposal comes after the state government approved five new police stations in areas such as Manjari, Laxminagar, Narhe, Lohegaon and Yeolewadi, along with additional staff. However, some of these new police stations are still operating from existing chowki buildings due to infrastructure limitations.
Police officials believe that increasing the number of chowkis will strengthen beat policing, improve information gathering, help monitor criminal activities and provide better security in sensitive areas.
The proposal is now pending approval from the state home department. Once approved, the police department will decide the locations of new chowkis based on population growth, crime patterns, accessibility and future development plans of the city.
