Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: India’s leading pole vaulter and current national record holder, Dev Meena, and his teammates, including interuniversity champion Kuldeep Yadav, were left stranded for hours at Maharashtra’s Panvel station and missed their connection to Bhopal after railways officials told them to pay a ‘penalty amount’ for carrying their equipment (pole vaults) inside the coach, which the ticket examiners referred to as “steel pipes”.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!Poles are made from lightweight fibres, primarily fibreglass and carbon fibre, and each pole weighs two kg with a dimension of 5mx5mx61cm.Their ordeal started soon after they reached Panvel station following an overnight journey from Mangaluru, venue for the All India Inter-University championships. Yadav won gold after clearing the horizontal bar with a leap of 5.10m, while Meena finished fourth after suffering a bout of fever a day before his competition round on Jan 15th. Meena’s personal best jump of 5.40m set at the World University Games in 2025 is the current Indian record in pole vault.
“Our team of seven athletes, including junior girls’ players, and our coach Ghanshyam Yadav had booked ourselves on two trains for our return journey, Mangaluru to Panvel and then to Bhopal. We were carrying a total of 10 new poles with us, each costing Rs 2 lakh. We reached Panvel at around 12 pm on Saturday (Jan 17) and had our onward train to Bhopal scheduled at 3:50 pm,” Meena told TOI.“When we were sitting in a waiting room, a senior Travelling Ticket Examiner (TTE) came and asked us about our poles. We told them that we are international athletes and were returning from a domestic competition in Mangaluru. Later, another TTE joined in, and both told us to pay a penalty amount (fine) of Rs 8,000 for carrying unbooked luggage (UBL),” added the champion vaulter.
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“We reasoned with the TTEs, but they refused to listen. They said the 10 poles weigh around 80kgs, but they weighed 20kgs in all. We were made to wait at the station for 4-5 hours and missed our scheduled train,” he said.Meena recalled that the TTEs called up Railways Protection Force (RPF) personnel to keep a watch and told them that they shouldn’t be leaving without paying the fine. “Our coach (Yadav) intervened and pleaded with folded hands to let us go, but they were not ready to budge. Later, we paid Rs 1,865 as fine to the railways and got our equipment released from the RPF. We booked ourselves on another train to Bhopal which departed at 7 pm, resulting in all the team members paying extra money,” Meena added.Later, the Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) office for the Mumbai division of the central railway (CR) issued a statement, stating: “On 17/01/26, at PNVL station, pipes were found with passengers. They are more than permitted dimensions, which can cause inconvenience to fellow passengers if carried in passenger coaches. Passengers were advised to carry it in the SLR luggage compartment. They were charged (Rs 1,865) under unbooked luggage. The passengers were not deboarded from any train. They were not kept waiting for 5-6 hours.”
