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‘By January, Hinjewadi traffic congestion should ease by 70 per cent, also five new roads will come up’

We hope to complete all the road work by December and the traffic congestion is expected to reduce by 70 per cent by January, says PMRDA commissioner Yogesh Mhase

PMRDA Commissioner says, "Actually, the traffic congestion has already reduced. There is some relief... The problem was created because of potholes that had surfaced and the roads that became narrow due to encroachments" (Express Photo)

AFTER THE Indian Express highlighted the travelling woes of techies and other commuters in the IT hub of Hinjewadi through a series of articles, PMRDA commissioner Yogesh Mhase in an interview to Manoj More said that the traffic congestion and the daily headache of commuters will reduce drastically by January.

Excerpts:

Lakhs of techies, commuters, ordinary people and students wait for long hours daily at Hinjewadi due to traffic congestion. Will this issue be resolved soon?

With the number of measures and initiatives that we have taken in the past two months, I can emphatically state that the traffic congestion in Hinjewadi area will reduce drastically latest by January this year. And no, I am not saying this for the sake of saying. I mean what I say. We are doing everything possible to ease traffic congestion and reduce the travel time of commuters entering Hinjewadi and exiting the area during evening hours.

In terms of percentage, how much will the daily traffic get reduced in the IT hub?

Actually, the traffic congestion has already reduced. There is some relief… The problem was created because of potholes that had surfaced and the roads that became narrow due to encroachments. Now the roads have become wide as we have removed encroachments and carried out some repair work. Once the rain completely stops and there is bright sunshine, you will certainly see the difference in the state of the road. We hope to complete all the road work by December and the traffic congestion is expected to reduce by 70 per cent by January. And once Metro service from Shivajinagar to Hinjewadi takes off and several office-goers stop using their personal vehicles, the traffic congestion will reduce further by 80-90 per cent. We are expecting the Metro service to get started by March.

But the new roads are still not in place, and the existing road widening work is still under progress?

Firstly, we are completely making five new roads. These are the ones which head from the highway to Hinjewadi. We have sent the proposal for acquisition of land for these roads to the district collectorate. For the fifth road, we will soon be sending the proposal. We have held two meetings with farmers for acquiring their land. Soon we will be holding a third meeting. Secondly, for the existing 19-km road which partly falls in PMRDA, MIDC and PWD areas, nearly seven km of the stretch is already in PMRDA area. The land acquisition process for this 19-km road is also under progress. Farmers have already agreed to part with their land. We will be sending a proposal for acquiring their land to the collectorate. As soon as rain stops, we will start the work for widening the road. As for the five new roads, the land acquisition process will take two months to complete. Our aim is to start the work on these five roads and the widening of 19-km road by Diwali. If the farmers give us permission, we will start the work before the land acquisition process starts.

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Another key issue is that today there is only one entry and exit point to Hinjewadi leading to daily traffic nightmare. Will there be more entry and exit points?

As I said, we are setting up five new roads. All these roads will provide entry and exit route to the motorists. These five roads will provide five entries and exits to the Mumbai-Bangalore highway. In short, there will be six entry and exit points. Even at Marunji and Sangawade, there will be entry and exit points. Besides, there will be three entry and exits to Parandwai, Shirgaon and Ravet.

Is there effective coordination between different government agencies or the problem still continues?

Of course, there is effective coordination between all the government agencies. The single-point authority of Divisional Commissionerate is ensuring the effective coordination. We are working in close coordination and taking all necessary measures to ease the traffic problems of citizens. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar are keeping a close watch on Hinjewadi problems and pushing for resolving them at the earliest. We are getting full support from the government for implementing various measures.

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Has PMRDA removed all encroachments, including those on the nullah ?

Almost all encroachments along the narrow roads have been demolished. As for those on the nullahs, we have received the report from irrigation department but are waiting for another report. After receiving the second report, we will initiate the necessary action. We don’t want any injustice on anyone. We want to take appropriate action in the matter.

Manoj Dattatrye More

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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