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This is an archive article published on November 24, 2015

PCMC confirms alternative route from Pimple Saudagar to Aundh

Commuters to take a two-km stretch instead of 5-km detour around defence land.

PCMC, Supreme court, defence ministry, road development, pune news The road that has been closed by defence authorites, inconveniencing residents of Pimple Saudagar and neighbouring areas. (Rajesh Stephan)

Thousands of residents of Pimple Saudagar and nearby areas can now breathe easy as the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation has finally zeroed in on a two-km stretch that will take them to Aundh. At present, commuters have to take a circuitous 5-km route to reach Aundh after defence authorities closed down the 400-metre stretch from Rakshak chowk to Kunjir chowk following a Supreme Court ruling.

“We have send a report to defence ministry suggesting the alternative route that passes from the boundary of the defence land. The final report will be sent to the defence ministry within a week,” Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Commissioner Rajiv Jadhav told The Indian Express on Monday.

Jadhav said that the alternative road is already in possession of PCMC and it does not pass through defence land. “It passes through the boundary of the defence land. Whatever little defence land will be required, we will pay for it,” he said.

The alternative route starts from Shivar Garden and stretches till Ginger Society. “The distance of the alternative route is barely two km whereas currently people have to take a five km route to reach Aundh. It will certainly be a big relief for them,” he said.
Jadhav said that once the defence ministry approves the road, it will take less than six months to lay the new stretch. “We are hopeful that the defence ministry will agree to the alternative route suggestion,” he said.

Maval MP Shrirang Barne said that the new alternative route looks a better option since chances of defence authorities opening up the closed road is almost zero. “I have spoken to the defence minister. He has told me clearly that they will not open the closed road following the Supreme Court directives,” he said.

Barne said that PCMC should speed up the process of sending the report suggesting the alternative route. “I will take up the matter immediately with the defence minister and am hopeful that approval will be given,” he said.

The issue came to light last month when the Supreme Court dismissed a petition by residents of Pimple Saudagar urging that the defence authorities be barred from closing down the road from Rakshak Chowk to Kate Pimple. The apex court, however, rejected the petition challenging the defence department’s decision in 2012 to close the road for security concerns.

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Residents of Pimple Saudagar have been fighting a legal battle to stop the closure of the road. The two-km stretch passes through Aundh Military Station and comprises residential quarters of defence personnel.

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.   Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were  asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.     Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More


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