E-Paper
Pune Metro work worsens traffic on Ahmednagar Road
Bund Garden, Yerawada and Ramwadi stations are located on the Pune-Ahmednagar Road with the metro work eating into footpaths and large portions of roadside margins
Vehicle users using Ramwadi, Yerawada and Bundgarden areas face chronic traffic jams on the Pune-Ahmednagar Road due to the Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation Limited (Maha-Metro) works. The public inconvenience has forced the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to write to Maha-Metro to ensure smooth traffic movement.
Maha-Metro has begun work of overhead station on the Vanaz-Ramwadi line, including Mangalpeth, Pune Railway Station, Ruby Hall Clinic, Bundgarden, Yerawada. Kalyaninagar and Ramwadi areas. Bund Garden, Yerawada and Ramwadi stations are located on the Pune-Ahmednagar Road with the metro work eating into footpaths and large portions of roadside margins.
While the bus rapid transit system (BRTS) corridor has already taken the middle portion of the road, Maha-Metro is constructing a staircase at the side portion of the road for metro stations, leaving commuters to manoeuvre their vehicles with the remaining road space.
Qaneez Sukhrani, civic activist and convenor of Association of Nagar Road Citizen Forum, said, “Does any state or civic authority monitor Maha-Metro to ensure they do not cause chaos by grabbing footpaths and roadside margins? The metro work is running behind schedule and the traffic department has taken a soft stand on road chaos issue on these routes.”
Hemant Sonwane, public relations officer, Maha-Metro said, “We are left with no option but to work on footpaths and side margins to construct entry and exit of metro stations. We have kept wardens to regulate traffic at these spots.”
VG Kulkarni, chief superintendent engineer, PMC road department, said, “We will write to Maha-Metro to finish work along roadsides to ease traffic. The oversized footpaths build at RTO, Ruby Hall Clinic and Bundgarden metro stations were corrected after continuous follow-ups.”
One of the civic officials said, “Many areas are going to face traffic chaos once the metro route starts as feeder buses, autorickshaws will take road space to drop and pick up commuters. Metro work on certain roads has already increased vehicular movement on adjacent stretches.”
Sandeep Borkar, resident of Chandannagar area, said, “We are facing regular traffic jams on Ahmednagar Road with Bundgarden and Yerawada being the worst affected after the metro work started.”
