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Chandrakant Patil orders reconstruction & repair of 400 km of city roads
Patil also announced deployment of traffic wardens to man traffic at different junctions, chowks and roads to maintain the free flow of traffic across the city
District guardian minister and president of the district planning committee, Chandrakant Patil, during a meeting of the committee held in the city on Monday, instructed the district and city administration to prepare an outline of reconstruction and repair of 400 km of city roads, work for which will begin after the end of the rainy season.
Patil also announced deployment of traffic wardens to man traffic at different junctions, chowks and roads to maintain the free flow of traffic across the city. Further, the traffic department will refrain from taking any penal action against citizens, including recovering fines and issuing challans, till the end of Diwali festivities.
Patil said, “The rains played havoc with the lives of citizens, resulting in bad roads and traffic jams across the city. After the rains subside, 400 km of city roads will be reconstructed and repaired. Private traffic wardens will be stationed for traffic management, and roads under the Pune metro bridges will be repaired. The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and Pune metro will be provided funds for these projects by the district planning committee.”
The PMC – currently under the direct supervision of administrator, Vikram Kumar – has come under sharp criticism from different sections of citizens, especially citizens’ forums, for inept handling of waterlogging during heavy rains, bad roads, and extremely poor traffic management during the monsoon.
During the meeting on Monday, the district administration further presented a development plan (DP) of Rs875 crore out of which Rs56.67 crore has been spent so far. An amount of Rs128.98 crore has been sanctioned for the development of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes while that of Rs54.11 crore has been sanctioned for the development of tribals across the district. The meeting was attended by city and district legislators, including Pune commissioner of police Amitabh Gupta, rural SP Abhinav Deshmukh, and Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) police chief Ankush Shinde.
