President intervenes twice on Pune’s bad road issue

For the second time in the past five months, President Draupadi Murmu has called attention to the poor condition of roads in Pune

For the second time in the past five months, President Draupadi Murmu has called attention to the poor condition of roads in Pune. Last week, she directed the chief secretary of the state to take action on the development plan (DP) roads in Dhayari that are pending for more than 28 years.

For the second time in the past five months, President Draupadi Murmu has called attention to the poor condition of roads in Pune. (HT)

The President also sent a letter to Dhananjay Benkar, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) city president, briefing him about the directions issued to the state government to address the problem.

Highlighting the issue, Benkar said, “Over the last four to five years, crores of rupees have been spent on the DP road from Savitri Garden to Sinhagad Road, but only 400 metres of work has been completed. The rest of the road remains unfinished.”

“Traffic in the area has become a serious problem due to non-functional signals and the lack of traffic police. This has caused severe congestion on roads such as Dhayari Village Road, Dhayari-Narhe Road, Nanded Phata to Nanded City Gate, and Lagad Mala to Dhayari Phata. Although four DP roads were planned in Dhayari 28 years ago, no significant progress has been made. Partial land acquisition has taken place in some areas, but the administration has not taken further action,” Benkar said.

“We have followed up with the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) administration, the state government, and even the chief minister and Prime Minister 75 times, but nothing has been done. Frustrated citizens staged a hunger strike and finally, we wrote a letter to President Murmu on this issue a month ago. She took note and sent a letter to the chief secretary of the state to take action. I believe this will lead to the issue being resolved soon,” Benkar further said.

“We have sent a court notice to the PMC and if no progress is made despite the President’s instructions, we will file a case against the municipal corporation,” Benkar added.

When contacted, Aniruddha Pawaskar, chief superintendent engineer at PMC, said, “We are working hard to develop these roads, which are important to solve the traffic problems in Dhayari. We have visited the area and marked the land for the roads, but residents are not willing to hand over their land for the development.”

Earlier during her two-day visit to the city in the first week of September, President Murmu’s vehicle had encountered significant potholes marring her travel experience. Frustrated by the poor conditions, she had reportedly sent a letter to the Pune Police expressing her dissatisfaction. The traffic police in turn had written a letter to the PMC to repair the roads on a priority basis.