As a result, the civic council is now experimenting with alternative methods to reduce traffic congestion on this road, one of which is a two-hour ban on heavy trucks during morning and evening peak hours.

PUNE: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has only been able to purchase 19 out of the almost 138 properties needed for the widening of the Katraj-Kondhwa Road since the majority of landowners are only interested in receiving cash compensation. As a result, the civic authority is currently experimenting with alternative strategies to reduce traffic congestion on this road, one of which is a two-hour ban on heavy trucks during morning and evening peak times.

Ajit Pawar, the deputy chief minister and Pune’s guardian minister, recently reviewed the road-widening project and gave the go-ahead to speed up the land-acquisition procedure. Now, in order to ease traffic congestion and prevent accidents on the Katraj-Kondhwa Road, he has given the go-ahead to enact a two-hour ban on heavy vehicles both during morning and evening peak hours.

The Katraj-Kondhwa Road is surrounded by large residential societies, schools, marriage halls, offices, banks, temples, and hospitals, according to Vikas Dhakne, extra municipal commissioner for PMC. Because of this, there is constantly a lot of traffic on this road, which causes major backups during the morning and afternoon rush hours. Additionally, there have been a few mishaps. We have sent a letter to the Pune district collector, Rajesh Deshmukh, the superintendent of the Pune rural police, and the deputy commissioner of the Pune traffic police asking them to stop heavy traffic on this road during peak hours in order to solve the traffic problem, especially during busy morning and evening hours, in order to address this issue and follow the directives of the deputy chief minister and Pune guardian minister, Ajit Pawar.

“Work on acquiring land is also in progress. Ajit Pawar personally persuaded three landowners during a recent visit. Around seven acres of land are owned by these three landowners. The issue of land purchase has now been resolved in major part, according to Dhakne.

The Katraj-Kondhwa Road resident Jyoti Shinde stated, “The PMC has done road widening in spots. Huge traffic congestion are present, and accidents are a possibility. The job should be finished as soon as possible by the PMC. During school hours, our kids are also dealing with issues. It’s a really risky position.

A major thoroughfare connecting Satara Road and Solapur Road is the Katraj-Kondhwa Road. The route is only 15 to 20 metres wide and experiences significant traffic congestion over the 3.5 km stretch from Kondhwa through Khadi Machine Chowk to Katraj junction, even though it sees heavy outbound traffic from the westerly bypass to Solapur route.

The PMC decided to widen the road in December 2018 and hired a contractor for the job. He began enlarging the road from its present width of 15 to 20 meters to 84 meters. The project’s estimated total cost, including goods and services tax (GST), was 215 crores, and its completion date was planned for December 2021. The PMC did not have enough money to secure the project’s land, thus the development came to a standstill last year. Following this, the PMC made the decision to narrow the road from the 84 meters originally envisaged to just 50 meters since it was straining the PMC’s finances. Originally, the Katraj-Kondhwa Road was to be 84 meters wide, but due to the high cost of property acquisition, it will only be widened to 50 meters. The state government has contributed 200 crores of the anticipated 280 crores needed to buy the land for the road, with PMC funding the remaining 80 crores.

Source- Hindustan times