Katraj-Kondhwa road widening will not be completed by September

PUNE: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) looks set to miss the September 2021 deadline for completion of the Katraj-Kondhwa road widening project as work has not been moving ahead due to land acquisition issues

PUNE: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) looks set to miss the September 2021 deadline for completion of the Katraj-Kondhwa road widening project as work has not been moving ahead due to land acquisition issues.

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While a total 288,124 square metre was to be acquired from 195 land owners for the project, the PMC has managed to acquire land from only 33 out of the 195 owners in the past two-and-a-half years, with the remaining 162 owners asking for cash compensation from the corporation. As a result, the PMC contractor has completed only 25% of the work till date.

V G Kulkarni, chief superintendent engineer of the road department, said, “The road widening work will not be completed till September 2021 as we are yet to acquire the necessary land for the project from 162 people. As of now we cannot say when the project will be completed.”

Giving 162 land owners cash as compensation for acquiring their land is not possible for the PMC as project costs would touch Rs700 crore. Sudhir Chavan, executive engineer of the road department, said, “It is not feasible to give cash to all the people whose land will be utilised for the project. We had proposed to give them floor space index (FSI) and transfer development rights (TDR) as compensation according to land acquisition rules. We are planning to continue the scheduled work on a step-by-step basis.”

With residents from Katraj and Kondhwa facing traffic snarls every day, there is a major need to widen the road to avoid traffic congestion. “New societies are coming up on both sides of the road. After the second wave of covid, traffic has increased again which is leading to traffic jams every day. If the project is completed, the problem of traffic jams will be solved,” said Rajat Deshmukh.

To address the traffic woes in the area, the PMC will construct the 3.5 km Katraj-Kondhwa road between Rajas society chowk and Khadi machine chowk. The corporation has planned three grade separators and two vehicle underpasses along the stretch. The foundation stone laying ceremony for the project was held on November 2, 2018 in the presence of the then Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. A PMC-appointed contractor began the work of increasing the width of the road from the existing 15 to 20 metre to 84 metre. The project cost was estimated to be Rs225 crore, including GST, and the deadline was set for three years with the project to be completed in September 2021