Redesigning of 13 congested Pune junctions on cards

Correct placement of zebra crossings, addition of refuge islands for pedestrians and bigger signboards are the proposed additions. Redeveloping junctions will help reduce minor, major accidents by at least 50%, says traffic department

In order to decongest the junctions in the city, the Pune traffic department and the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), have decided to redevelop 13 junctions which usually witness major traffic chaos.

Better infrastructure at busy junctions will resolve traffic issues. (In pic) Motorists ride in a haphazard manner at Ambedkar chowk in Warje, on Sunday.(SANKET WANKHADE/HT PHOTO)

Pankaj Deshmukh, chief, Pune traffic department said, “Redeveloping the 13 junctions in the city and making changes in the existing infrastructure will reduce the traffic. Not just that, we believe, that decongestion of these junctions will help reduce minor and major accidents by at least 50 per cent.”

Deshmukh added, “The existing infrastructure at various junctions needs to be designed to cope up with the exponential rise in the vehicular traffic in the city. There are various junctions which do not have proper service roads, turning corners, blind spots and refuge islands. These wrong designs are misleading and hence, commuters move in a hap hazard manner. This leads to traffic congestions and accidents.” 

“In order to reduce accidents and traffic woes, we have proposed the development of these 13 junctions,” said Deshmukh.

Senior PMC officials of the road department on basis of anonymity said, “We are working in coordination with the traffic department to make a detailed plan of the redevelopment of the junctions.”

Deshmukh further said, “The successful model of redevelopment of Jungli Maharaj road and Fergusson College road needs to be implemented across the city. Currently all the attention is cued in certain specific areas, however, we need to focus on the overall development of the city.This will certainly help us in streamlining the traffic movement in these congested areas.”

Deshmukh said, “Many internal small roads in the city are now over crowded as the vehicular traffic has increased. Hence, small improvisations like the correct placement of zebra crossings, addition of refuge islands for pedestrians in the junction crossings and bigger sign boards are needed for the smaller internal roads in the city.”

Meanwhile, the traffic department along with the civic body is also working on redesigning 24 city roads such as Karve road, Sinhagad road, Senapati Bapat road and Ahmednagar road.