A day after the convoy of chief minister Eknath Shinde was stuck in traffic at Chandni chowk, officials from civic and district administration along with the police hold a spot visit on Saturday on the CM’s instruction to take measures and resolve traffic snarls.
To ease traffic at Chandni chowk, authorities have decided to raze the old bridge previously used by commuters to enter into Kothrud within 15 days, provide 100 marshals to regularise traffic, increase one lane for traffic and start service road. Among the 100 marshals, Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad police will deploy 50 each.
On Friday evening, Shinde’s convoy on his way to Satara was stuck in traffic briefly on the highway near Chandni chowk compelling Pimpri-Chinchwad traffic police to rush to the spot and clear traffic.
Seeing CM Shinde, some residents standing on service roads approached him and appraised him of the daily traffic issues on the stretch due to the ongoing road work. They told the CM that two to three hours are wasted daily in traffic snarls at Chandni chowk used by around six lakh people, with most of them going towards Hinjewadi IT park and Mumbai.
Shinde then called officials of the civic body and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and asked them to address the issue. The halt of CM’s convoy at Chandni chowk added to traffic jam that stretched for over 5 km.
{{/usCountry}}Shinde then called officials of the civic body and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and asked them to address the issue. The halt of CM’s convoy at Chandni chowk added to traffic jam that stretched for over 5 km.
{{/usCountry}}On CM’s instructions, district collector Rajesh Deshmukh, Pune municipal commissioner Vikram Kumar, PCMC police commissioner Ankush Shinde, additional police commissioner Sanjay Shinde, Pune deputy police commissioner (traffic) Rahul Shriname and NHAI officer Sanjay Kadam visited the spot and later held a meeting to decide measures.
Deshmukh said, “Roads leading towards Chandni chowk have nine lanes for traffic but as work is in progress, these lanes have reduced to three and chocking highway and city traffic.”
To ease traffic, PMC has decided to acquire land near Shrungeri math. “As instructed by the high court, PMC is getting 270 square metre land which will help to start service road work. PMC will urge the Supreme Court to vacate stay on acquisition of land related to Ved Shala,” he said.
Officials have instructed contractor to start work related to tarring of road between Mulshi and Satara road in next one week. District collector and PMC officials also instructed NHAI to clear potholes at Chandni chowk and surrounding areas in next two days.
Gadkari to visit Pune
Cabinet minister Chandrakant Patil said, “Union minister Nitin Gadkari will review Chandni chowk work in person during his visit to Pune city on September 12. The road work is delayed due to land acquisition issues.”