E-Paper
With state govt to bear 60% cost, PMC hoping to resume Katraj-Kondhwa road work
The Katraj-Kondhwa road sees the movement of heavy vehicles and is one of the busiest stretches in Pune, connecting the southern and eastern parts of the city
With deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’s announcement that the state government will bear 60% of the project cost of the Katraj-Kondhwa road, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is hoping to resume work which has been stalled for the past many years.
Last week, Fadnavis announced, “The PMC had submitted various projects worth Rs2,000 crore and asked for help from the state government. Chief minister Eknath Shinde and I are both positive about it and have decided to bear 60% of the cost of this project while the PMC will bear the remaining 40%.”
PMC road department head V J Kulkarni said, “PMC is seeking help of ₹280 crore from the state government mainly for SSWand construction purposes. As the deputy chief minister announced that the state government will bear 60% of the project cost, it is a big relief.” The civic body is expecting around ₹168 crore in funds from the state government (equivalent to 60% of project cost).
The Katraj-Kondhwa road sees the movement of heavy vehicles and is one of the busiest stretches in Pune, connecting the southern and eastern parts of the city. With the area witnessing huge real estate development, both vehicular and passenger movement has increased substantially, resulting in frequent traffic jams.
In the past, land acquisition issues have forced the PMC to reduce the width of the proposed Katraj-Kondhwa road from 84 metres to 50 metres. The ground-breaking ceremony of the road was carried out in 2017 at the hands of Fadnavis who was then the chief minister of Maharashtra. Owing to land acquisition issues however, the civic body failed to complete the road. The project has since attracted controversy with tenders for the proposed road having been scrapped nearly four times.
