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PMC begins long pending slope reduction work at Mohammadwadi
The PMC roads department is spending ₹3 crore to reduce the slope from 10 feet to 3 feet and reconstruct it to a width of 24 metres
Citizen activism on social media, combined with on-the-ground efforts by elected representatives, has finally resulted in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) initiating repairs on the accident-prone Mohammadwadi slope near the main gate of Anandvan forest areas.
The PMC roads department is spending ₹3 crore to reduce the slope from 10 feet to 3 feet and reconstruct it to a width of 24 metres.
The slope that leads to Cloud 9 society is the only connecting road to the opulent Mohammadwadi area, which had become a major traffic bottleneck.
HT has consistently highlighted commuters’ and area residents’ plight on the issue.
Despite the forest department’s in-principle approval for land acquisition and other modalities, the work was further delayed because adjoining societies objected to parting with their land, which included demolishing their fencing walls.
Area residents, led by the NIBM Annexe Residents Forum and the Anandvan Parisar Citizens Forum, staged a number of protests against the PMC, demanding urgent repairs on the slope, but the civic body overlooked their pleas.
Mohammadwadi corporator Nanda Lonkar and NCP office bearers met with top forest department officials in Nagpur about the issue some time ago and received their approval for the project.
“We have been demanding slope reduction of the bottleneck for the past ten years,” said NIBM Annexe citizens forum director Daljeet Goraya.
“Our organisation had petitioned the PMO and CMO for the bottleneck removal work, but the PMC ignored our requests. The National Human Rights Commission of India (NHRC) was also contacted about the matter because both the PMC and the forest department had demonstrated apathy towards the citizens. We hope that the work will be completed soon,” Goraya said.
Prominent civic rights activist and resident of Ganga Florentina Society Nitin Bokey said, “The area residents had been meeting the PMC commissioner and all the stakeholders including elected representatives for a long time. Their efforts were rewarded when the forest department approved the land acquisition and the PMC approved funding for the project.”
Reacting to the issue, PMC road development sub-engineer, Avinash Kamthe, said, “We have sanctioned ₹3 crore for the project, and massive digging is currently underway to reduce the slope. The work should be concluded in two months.”
