The National Highways Authority of India’s (NHAI) Pune division has identified at least 15 locations across the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) and Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) jurisdictions where infrastructure deficiencies and traffic bottlenecks need to be addressed as a priority.
Among the locations identified are Warje Bridge Chowk and adjoining stretches of the Pune bypass (NH-48), the Ahmednagar Road corridor, Pune-Satara Road, Solapur Road and other highway stretches where the movement of through traffic is increasingly affected by local vehicular movement, junction bottlenecks and pressure on service roads.
An NHAI official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the objective is not merely to widen roads but to identify the specific infrastructure deficiencies responsible for recurring congestion at each location.
“We have identified roughly 15 locations across the Pune region where the problem is a combination of highway traffic and local traffic. In many places, the highway itself has adequate capacity, but the approaches, junctions and service roads cannot handle the increasing local movement. Large residential developments have come up along these corridors, and thousands of vehicles now enter and exit the highway during the morning and evening peak hours. This creates conflict points and slows down the main carriageway,” the official said.
NHAI would work with the PMC, PCMC and PMRDA to examine each location separately and determine the required intervention. “At some locations, the solution could be improvement of a service road, while at others it may require redesigning a junction, removing bottlenecks, improving turning arrangements, providing better entry and exit points or strengthening coordination with the traffic police. We do not want isolated works to be undertaken without looking at the entire traffic movement. The idea is to prepare a location-wise plan and take up the required infrastructure improvements with the concerned civic agency,” the official said.
{{/usCountry}}NHAI would work with the PMC, PCMC and PMRDA to examine each location separately and determine the required intervention. “At some locations, the solution could be improvement of a service road, while at others it may require redesigning a junction, removing bottlenecks, improving turning arrangements, providing better entry and exit points or strengthening coordination with the traffic police. We do not want isolated works to be undertaken without looking at the entire traffic movement. The idea is to prepare a location-wise plan and take up the required infrastructure improvements with the concerned civic agency,” the official said.
{{/usCountry}}Mandar Jadhav, a resident from Warje, said, “The problem is not limited to the main highway. During peak hours, vehicles from the numerous housing societies enter the service roads and then merge with highway traffic, creating long queues. Even a short distance can take 30 to 40 minutes. Better junction planning and service-road connectivity are urgently needed.”
Another resident, Kiran Pisal from Ahmednagar Road, said, “The Ahmednagar Road corridor has seen massive residential and commercial development, but the supporting road infrastructure has not kept pace. During office hours, the service roads are packed with vehicles, and traffic from housing societies, shops and the highway all converge at the same points. A coordinated solution involving NHAI and the civic authorities is necessary.”