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Lavale-Sus road work delay leaves thousands stuck in hours-long traffic
The worst affected are students and staff of educational institutions in Lavale, as well as patients and medical personnel
Thousands of students, employees, patients and residents travelling between Lavale and Sus are being forced to spend hours in traffic as the widening and concretisation of a crucial road stretch remains incomplete. A narrow bottleneck has turned what should be a five-minute journey into an ordeal lasting at least 30 minutes, with delays worsening during peak hours and the monsoon.
The worst affected are students and staff of educational institutions in Lavale, as well as patients and medical personnel at Symbiosis University Hospital and Research Centre. Ambulances heading to the hospital are also getting caught in congestion, raising concerns over delays in reaching patients requiring urgent medical attention.
“Every day is a nightmare for our students and staff to travel on the road to Symbiosis International University. I am glad the road is getting widened, but the slow pace of work and the fact that it was not completed before the rains has added to this ordeal,” said Vidya Yeravadekar, chancellor, Symbiosis International (Deemed University), and principal director, Symbiosis.
The problem has been compounded on the Pashan-Sus-Lavale route, where a single-lane stretch is struggling to cope with rapidly increasing traffic generated by residential development. Many construction vehicles, along with water tankers, ply the route every day. Commuters said they sometimes spend two hours travelling a distance of barely a few kilometres, while regular users of the road can lose four to five hours a day.
“Some of our engineering and MBA students came together to find a solution, which was submitted to the PMRDA commissioner,” she said, adding that potholes in the road have caused students slipping from their motorbikes and ambulances getting stuck due to traffic jams.
“We leave well in advance for lectures, but there is no guarantee that we will reach the campus on time. During peak hours, students have to either wait in buses for hours or take risky two-wheeler routes to avoid the jam,” a student of Symbiosis Institute of Technology at Lavale said.
The route caters to students and employees travelling to Symbiosis International University, ISBM and corporate establishments, including Lupin Ltd.
“The road construction has been going on for more than six months. Many accidents have been reported on the stretch,” said Amit Deshmukh, who runs a private hostel in Lavale.
“Commuting on this road has become a daily nightmare. A journey of barely 2.5 km can take hours because traffic gets completely stuck. Students, employees and residents are losing several hours every day,” said Rajat Sharma, a commuter who regularly travels between Lavale and Sus.
Residents said the problem was not new and had persisted for years despite repeated representations. The issue figured prominently during the 2018 assembly election, when residents of Lavale and surrounding villages even threatened to boycott the polls if the road was not repaired.
The Public Works Department subsequently initiated work on the road network connecting Lavale Phata and Sus Gaon. However, commuters said incomplete work has continued to create bottlenecks, with conditions becoming particularly difficult during the monsoon because of potholes, muddy stretches and reduced road width.
The wider road network being developed under the hybrid annuity model (HAM) includes the 12-km Pashan-Sus-Lavale Road, the 12-km Mahalunge-Nande-Chande-Ghotawde Road and the stretch from Ghotawde Chowk through Hinjewadi Phase III to Urse toll naka, which is more than 12 km long.
Sanjay Mandke, deputy engineer, PWD, said work on the immediate 2.5-km project had progressed but was affected by challenges.
“The road project spans 2.5 kilometres, of which 700 metres of asphalt work has been completed since work began this March. For the past five to 10 years, tenders were sanctioned, but work could not proceed because of severe, unaddressed encroachments. Over the last five to six months, our primary focus was successfully clearing these illegal structures,” Mandke said.
He said the pace of asphalting was subsequently affected by a rise in bitumen prices following disruptions in the international market. “Citizens need not worry. Full construction work will resume immediately after the monsoon and the entire stretch will be completed without further hindrance,” he said.
Residents, however, said temporary traffic-management measures would not be enough and demanded that the entire road network be completed on priority.
“We have waited for years and repeatedly approached MPs, MLAs, ministers and officials. We want the entire road to be completed instead of leaving isolated stretches unfinished,” said Ramesh Patil, a Lavale resident.
With educational institutions, hospitals, offices and housing projects continuing to expand in the Lavale-Sus belt, commuters said the road had become far more important than a local access route. They urged PWD, PMRDA and other agencies to accelerate the widening work and put in place immediate traffic-management measures.
