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PMCs failure to build roads worsens Pune traffic
While the PMC has proposed multiple roads in different surveys carried out since 1980, the roads have remained on paper due to various reasons
One of the reasons for the city’s deteriorating traffic situation is failure on the part of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to increase the number of roads, that too at a time when Pune has seen massive expansion with sizeably populated new areas having been merged within the municipal limits.
While the PMC has proposed multiple roads in different surveys carried out since 1980, the roads have remained on paper due to various reasons. For instance, the high-capacity mass-transit route (HCMTR) proposed by the PMC had come up for discussion in 1978-82 but continues to evade implementation over four decades later.
When asked about the delay, PMC road department head V J Kulkarni said, “There are different reasons for the delay in each project with some delays pertaining to land acquisition.” Apart from the HCMTR, the Kharadi to Shivane, Balbharti to Paud, and Katraj to Kondhwa roads, too, are far from implementation.
“Land acquisition has been the main reason for the delay in the Katraj to Kondhwa road. There were court litigations in case of the Balbharti and Shivane to Kharadi roads. The HCMTR is an important project and the PMC is working on it,” Kulkarni said.
According to senior Congress leader Abhay Chajjed, who has been an elected member of the PMC for the last few decades, Pune has lagged behind Mumbai or even Pimpri-Chinchwad. “If we compare other cities like Mumbai and Pimpri-Chinchwad, we find that they are creating new road alignments. But the irony is that the PMC had planned many alternative roads but did not execute the same. Both the political leadership and the administration are responsible for this,” Chajjed said.
Apart from land acquisition and court cases, concerns raised by environmentalists have also blocked some of the projects namely the Balbharti to Paud road. Proposed more than three decades ago, the stretch could not be developed due to opposition from locals and environmentalists with the latter claiming that the road posed a danger to the hills and their ecology. Last Tuesday, PMC Commissioner Vikram Kumar along with others visited the site and announced that 2.1 km of the road will be elevated.
Ujwal Keskar, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader who was the opposition leader in the PMC, said that the PMC’s planning was good but it failed in terms of implementation. “No doubt that there was lack of political will but I will also blame the administration and mainly the various municipal commissioners who were posted here and failed to think about these projects. There are some municipal commissioners who aggressively executed some policies in Pune such as the setting up of sewage treatment plants (STPs) but did not remain firm about executing the various projects and neglected the transportation plan.”
In case of the Katraj to Kondhwa road, land acquisition problems have now forced the PMC to reduce the width of the proposed road from 84 metre to 50 metre. However, even that is going on at a very slow clip due to funding issues.
A former municipal commissioner on condition of anonymity said that government officers have always thought twice before executing any project in Pune because of the multiple opinions that these projects evoke apart from the media being aggressive about civic projects. Ideally, the requisite infrastructure needs to be created prior to any kind of development. While the administration tried to build roads in developing areas, there were allegations that the infrastructure was being developed to help the builders. Recently, Pune municipal commissioner Vikram Kumar and police commissioner Amitabh Gupta jointly visited various roads and suggested some measures. The Pune police too suggested that the BRTS be demolished and that private vehicles be allowed in these lanes.
