Malavli train time table

About Malavli station

Malavli is the single most useful station on this line for a visitor, and the one most people get wrong. It is the closest station to the Karla and Bhaja rock-cut caves and to the walk up to Lohagad fort. Travellers who ride all the way to Lonavala and then double back by road lose about an hour and a good deal of money for no reason at all.

The station is small and quiet, and it sits in the middle of exactly the countryside people come for. The Bhaja caves date from around the second century BCE and are among the earliest rock-cut Buddhist monuments in India; Karla, across the highway, contains the largest chaitya hall of its kind in the country. Both are within a comfortable morning of the platform.

What is nearby

• Bhaja Caves — about 2 km, walkable, with waterfalls beside them in the monsoon
• Lohagad Fort — roughly 6 km via Bhaja, then a stepped climb; allow three to four hours in total
• Karla Caves — about 5 km on the other side of the highway; the great chaitya hall is worth the trip on its own
• Visapur Fort, less visited and harder going than Lohagad
• Autos wait outside for the main morning arrivals, fewer later in the day

Worth knowing before you travel

Get off here, not at Lonavala, if the caves or Lohagad are your destination. And check your return train before you set off — the gaps between afternoon services are long, and there is very little shelter at the station if you misjudge it.

When the station is busy

Busy with visitors on weekend mornings between June and September, and quiet the rest of the time. The station is unstaffed for much of the day.

Station facts

Station

Malavli

Line

Pune–Lonavala suburban, Central Railway

Distance from Pune Junction

56.4 km

Distance from Lonavala

8.0 km

Trains towards Lonavala

16 a day

Trains towards Pune

16 a day

Typical time to Pune Junction

about 73 minutes

Typical time to Lonavala

about 14 minutes

Adjacent stations