Pedestrian crossing proposed for Ganeshkhind road

Pedestrians are forced to risk their lives while crossing the 36m wide arterial road with speeding vehicles at Cosmos bank location

While the ongoing work of the Metro on Ganeshkhind road is a step towards smooth traffic flow, the plan has overlooked pedestrian facility. Many residents of Khairewadi and in Bhosalenagar have expressed their inconvenience in crossing the roads.

Many residents of Khairewadi and in Bhosalenagar have expressed their inconvenience in crossing the roads. (HT PHOTO)

“There are hardly any pedestrian crossing on this road. There are only two places —Khairewadi (Central Mall) and SPPU Chowk — and both are in opposite direction of the 1.3 km long road,” said urban designer and architect Aditya Chawande.

He along with NGO Parisar have proposed to the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) a safe crossing for pedestrians on Ganeshkhind road at the road opening in front of Cosmos bank (near Range Hills corner). The complete barricading of the road by Maha-Metro has led to a longer detour length on the stretch of almost 1.3 km from SPPU chowk to Central Mall for pedestrians.

Pedestrians are forced to risk their lives while crossing the 36m wide arterial road with speeding vehicles at Cosmos bank location. An opening is provided only for vehicles to take a U-turn for Senapati Bapat road and Range Hills road.

The proposal was discussed and presented at the meeting of the Non-Motorised Transport (NMT) committee in February 2021. “PMC engineers agreed that the situation requires an intervention for Ganeshkhind road is an arterial road connecting Aundh, Baner, Balewadi, Hinjewadi and Pimpri- Chinchwad, and faces high traffic volume. The Shivajinagar-Hinjewadi Metro line work is also under progress along the stretch. The road has neighbourhoods like Bhosalenagar, Model Colony and institutional buildings like colleges, banks, malls, IT offices, restaurants, and commercial spaces. Naturally, the pedestrian footfall is high on this road, but the road lacks adequate safe crossings for pedestrians,” said Chawande.

PMC engineer Dinkar Gojare and Chawande have been following up the proposal but it is delayed due to unavailability of PMC engineers.

Chawande has proposed painted pedestrian crossing with stop lines and safe refuge space with fibre bollard and barricades, speed breakers at both the vehicle approach ends, signages and amber blinking traffic lights for night-time.