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Countdown to PMC polls: Vadgaonsheri’s dynamic growth offset by nagging civic problems
Heavy rainfall in the city has exposed the PMC’s shoddy road work at Vadgaonsheri. During a recent 78-mm of rainfall in a four hour spell, several stretches of road here were flooded, disrupting traffic and damaging vehicles
PUNE Till a few years ago, Vadgaonsheri was a parched locale where residential societies and house in general struggled to access water, potable or otherwise.
The state government, along with the Pune municipal corporation (PMC) initiated the Bhama Askhed project that is now meeting the water needs of areas along Ahmednagar road, where Vadgaonsheri is located.
While residents are happy a long-pending problem has been resolved, another issue has cropped up.
Heavy rainfall in the city has exposed the PMC’s shoddy road work. During a recent 78-mm of rainfall in a four hour spell, several stretches of road here were flooded, disrupting traffic and damaging vehicles.
The areas that suffered the most are Dhanori, Yerawada and Kalyaninagar.
So grave is the problem that even deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar who arrived in Pune at the airport on that day, was stuck in traffic for hours.
Many of these areas do not have a storm-water drainage system despite housing a few major IT companies.
Amit Wani, an employee with a private firm, said, “Our Shubham Society has 200 flats. For the last three years, water has been entering our society. The compound wall and vehicles get damaged. The parking lot is often submerged. Society members have seen snakes in the water.”
Elected members on their part blamed the administration for the water logging though PMC officials said elected members too are responsible.
Shailaja Patil, a resident of Ujwal housing society said, “After heavy rains DPs got submerged in water. We are all facing the problem of water logging.”
After state government merged 23 villages under the PMC limits recently, the civic limits have extended further on the city’s eastern front, as areas like Wagholi, an entry-exit point for Pune, have also been merged into PMC limits.
On one hand the area boasts being an IT hub with offices located in areas like Vimannagar and Kharadi, on the other there are no public toilets in these areas.
A lack of public gardens makes the area concretisation look stark, making a walk along the road in summer difficult.
“I shifted to Kharadi from the western part of the city which has a thick cover of greenery. Kharadi stretch only has tall buildings without any greenery, leave alone public gardens,” said Shreeram Ratnaparakhi, a 40-year-old IT engineer.
Given that the Lohegaon airport falls in the area, the Indian Air Force has height restrictions on buildings in the area.
Avinash Thube, a science teacher living in Vimannagar said, “Water scarcity has been resolved, but there are many issues like repeated road digging, traffic snarls, encroachments on footpaths. Many stalls are using illegal water connections.”
The area, despite several problems, has developed rapidly. Despite water scarcity a few years ago, this area has large housing projects.
Vadgaon Sheri, which is spread across two ward offices, Ahmednagar road ward office and the Yerwada/Kalas/Dhanori ward office under the PMC, has corporators from the NCP, BJP, and Shiv Sena in the PMC.
Under various wards of PMC in Vadgaonsheri, a total of 14 elected members are from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), six are from the NCP, one member is from Shiv Sena and one is from the AIMIM.
The Nagar Road Citizens Forum has issued a legal notice over the lack of basic services, and forum convenor Qaneez Sukhrani has said property tax will not be paid if residents do not get basic services.
Kalyaninagar residents too are unhappy with the encroachments on roads and footpaths.
The BRTS project in the area is currently at a standstill as metro work is going on.
Sukhrani said, “Condition of roads deteriorate rapidly. Degeneration leads to potholes, cracks, fissures due to poor quality material used by contractor. Trenches are filled up hurriedly with mud, but the road is not levelled evenly.”
Specifically on footpaths, Sukhrani added, “Most stretches do not have footpaths even though the road design includes footpaths. If there are footpaths, it is broken, not repaired, or not according to IRC norms. Where there are footpaths, encroachments and hawkers grab the place leaving pedestrians to risk their lives. PMC does not re-locate the hawkers with permits and evicts those who are illegal.”
Then there is the garbage issue on which Sukhrani says: “PMC staff has no control over residential and commercial establishments against throwing mixed garbage in public spaces. PMC does not clear or remove broken branches, branches cut by various agencies, fallen leaves. These are left to rot in public spaces, especially behind transformers, junction and fuse boxes, around trees guards. PMC does not remove unwanted and dead cables hanging from trees and electricity poles.”
Tit for tat
In the last five years we did lots of work in these areas. Whatever promises were made by us have been executed. The area was facing a water scarcity and we completed the long-pending Bhama Askhed water project. The metro work is moving speedily and citizens are appreciating the work. The roads around Lohegaon airport got developed. We approved two flyovers. New gardens have been inaugurated.
- Jagdish Mulik, BJP city unit president
Despite having a clear majority, BJP failed to do justice to the area. They have 14 corporators, but they did not think about storm water drainage. BJP is trying to take credit for the Bhama Askhed dam, but with the help of Ajit Pawar we cleared all the hurdles and completed the project which was started in our tenure. Due to illegal constructions, nullahs have been diverted. Citizens should check who diverted these nallahs.
-Sunil Tingre, NCP MLA
