Relief from traffic congestion at Chandni Chowk only after ten days: officials
With the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) Pune unable to complete the extension of lanes on the Katraj to Dehu road bypass highway in the proposed eight days after demolition of the old bridge at Chandni chowk, the extension work will take another 10 days for completion, it is estimated
With the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) Pune unable to complete the extension of lanes on the Katraj to Dehu road bypass highway in the proposed eight days after demolition of the old bridge at Chandni chowk, the extension work will take another 10 days for completion, it is estimated.
As per the information shared by the NHAI Pune, side rocks of the hill remained on both sides of the bypass highway even after demolition of the old bridge at Chandni chowk at 1 am on Sunday, October 2. Most of these side rocks were removed through blasting and taking short blocks of two to three hours on the bypass highway last week, but the work is still incomplete. That apart, the work of constructing service roads is also going on, so extending the highway lanes will take another 10 days.
Sanjay Kadam, NHAI Pune project director, said, “Soon after demolition of the old bridge last Sunday, the work of removing the side rocks through blasting and also the service road work was speeded-up by the team. Compared to the earlier traffic jams at the chowk which would go beyond one-and-a-half hours, traffic jams have now come down to 15 minutes. Still, the work has not been completed fully and it will take another three days for blasting to be carried out. As of now, we have extended the bypass highway lanes up to four-and-a-half, which will then be extended to six lanes, with three lanes on each side of the highway.”
“Now our plan is to first complete the lane extension work on priority and in the next 10 days, the actual six lanes at Chandni chowk will be operational, providing relief to the public from daily traffic jams. Also, some of the service road works are still going on and those too will be completed in the next eight to ten days,” Kadam said.
The main reason behind demolishing the old bridge at the chowk was to extend the lanes on the Katraj to Dehu road bypass highway, and provide a permanent solution to the commuters’ daily traffic woes. Even after demolition of the old bridge however, the NHAI has had to carry out small blasts and take blocks of a few hours on the bypass highway in the past one week just to remove the side rocks of the hill that remained on both sides of the highway. Even Sunday morning, a block of one hour was suddenly taken at the chowk, forcing commuters going through the bypass highway to wait. “It is ridiculous that the NHAI and traffic police are stopping us just before Chandni chowk on the highway, and we have to wait for more than an hour for the blast to take place. Then the debris is removed from the highway. Why can’t they announce a schedule of blast timings, and accordingly carry out blasts so that the commuters are not affected,” said Atul Namekar, secretary, Sinhagad road - Warje Residents’ Association.
