Don’t be surprised to find a barricading gate at the toll naka the next time you visit Sinhagad fort over the weekend. Reason being the forest department has decided to install such a gate at the Awsarwadi toll naka - from where the public is given entry to the fort premises - to prevent weekend crowding at the fort. Also don’t be surprised if you are not allowed to stop/park your vehicles in the ghat section because people have been found to do just that before going roaming around the fort leading to traffic jams in the ghat section.
As per the information shared by the state forest department, there have been huge crowds at Sinhagad fort, especially during weekends, ever since the fort and other historical monuments were opened to the public. This has led to heavy traffic jams in the ghat section and tourists too have had to return home without going to the top of the fort. Tourists have also been found to park their vehicles anywhere around the ghat section and go inside the forest areas. During the rainy season, it has become dangerous for them to do so and hence these decisions have been taken as a precautionary measure.
“We are going to soon install a barricading gate at the Awsarwadi toll booth from where entry to the fort is given, the reason behind it is to keep control over the crowding at the fort. Specially during weekends, there is a huge crowd and the entire ghat road gets blocked. We have to monitor the vehicles across the ghats and then clear them in hours. By putting up the gate, we can at least stop the vehicle entry when there is crowding ahead,” said Pradip Sakpal, Pune (Bhamburda) forest officer.
“Apart from that, we have also seen that on the Golewadi and Awsarwadi ghat section road, many tourists stop and halt unnecessarily over the weekends. They park their vehicles and step into the forest. There is a lot of garbage and other unwanted things done by the people. So to avoid this, they won’t be allowed to halt or park their vehicles from now on and if they are found doing that, strict action will be taken against them,” said Sakpal.
{{/usCountry}}“Apart from that, we have also seen that on the Golewadi and Awsarwadi ghat section road, many tourists stop and halt unnecessarily over the weekends. They park their vehicles and step into the forest. There is a lot of garbage and other unwanted things done by the people. So to avoid this, they won’t be allowed to halt or park their vehicles from now on and if they are found doing that, strict action will be taken against them,” said Sakpal.
{{/usCountry}}The PMPML electric bus (e-bus) service – started on May 1 – was closed down in the Sinhagad ghat section on May 17 due to safety issues while private vehicles were allowed to go to the top of the fort. Now however, there is a lot of traffic congestion, long queues of vehicles in the ghat road and people getting stuck and irritated. “There was heavy traffic on the ghat road in the morning when we went to the fort. It took more than one-and-a-half hours for us to reach the top. And during our return in the afternoon, the entire ghat road was packed and we had to come walking down the ghat,” said Sachin Alande, a tourist.