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PMC to demolish Sadhu Vaswani bridge, construct new one
A new four-lane bridge will be built here at an estimated cost of ₹70.45 crores. However, officials said it will not be an easy task as there are railway tracks underneath it
Sadhu Vaswani bridge connecting Koregaon Park and Circuit House in the city will soon be demolished, civic officials said.
The estimate committee of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) on Tuesday gave nod to demolish the 640-metre long and 6.90-metre wide bridge, currently closed for heavy vehicles.
A new four-lane bridge will be built here at an estimated cost of ₹70.45 crores. However, officials said it will not be an easy task as there are railway tracks underneath it.
The estimate committee headed by PMC commissioner Vikram Kumar gave approval to demolish the existing bridge and build a new one which will have four lanes.
Kumar said, “We will soon start work to demolish the bridge.”
As the flyover has aged and is not solving the traffic issues here, PMC had initially planned to renovate it though later decided to demolish and replace it with a new structure.
Meanwhile, the Southern Command had requested PMC to open the bridge for plying heavy vehicles of the Army. The Southern Command has also asked PMC to build a new structure that can withstand Army tanks.
Considering this, in February 2021, PMC appointed a consultant to check if the bridge can be strengthened instead of being demolished. The consultant submitted its report to the PMC.
The bridge is crossing the railway lines. So PMC will have to keep more gap in two spans which is adding to the cost.
By considering railway approval and defence utility, PMC preferred to build a new bridge. The existing bridge has only two lanes.
A senior PMC official requesting anonymity said, “The civic body does not have an exact record of when the bridge was constructed and at what cost. But after conducting a fitness test, PMC decided to keep the existing bridge only for light vehicles while heavy vehicles are banned here.”
During the lockdown, PMC demolished the flyover at Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) Chowk on Ganesh Khind Road. PMC along with Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) is building a new one at the same location which will be constructed along the Hinjewadi-Shivajinagar Metro line.
In 2016, a bridge on Savitri river in Raigad district collapsed killing 26 passengers of a state transport (ST) bus. This prompted the state government to conduct an audit of all its bridges, leading PMC to also follow suit, further reviewing these structures in June and December every year.
Subsequently, a technical audit of 18 bridges in the city was conducted in 2018. Technical experts from the College of Engineering, Pune (CoEP), were also asked to conduct a structural audit of some bridges that were over 30 years old — of these, the decades-old Sadhu Vaswani bridge near Koregaon Park (KP) was one route that was checked. The CoEP had categorically suggested demolishing the entire bridge and building a new one as it is highly dangerous for traffic.
Existing bridge
Sadhu Vaswani bridge connects Koregaon park to Circuit House
640-metre Length
6.90-metre Width
₹70.45 crores Estimate cost of new bridge
