Invisible speed breakers near Pune’s Poonawala garden pose perpetual danger to commuters

A 300m stretch of the Salisbury Park road near the Gool Poonawala Garden has four speed breakers. None of these speed breakers are painted with zebra stripes, making them difficult to see in the day and almost impossible to spot them at night. They violate the Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) speed breaker guidelines which say that retro reflective paint markings are mandatory for any type of speed breaker in the city. The Indian Road Congress guidelines also have similar guidelines for speed breakers.

A part of the road also does not have streetlight coverage, again in violation of PMC guidelines which say “At the location of speed breaker, there should be sufficient streetlights available.” Adding to the problem, the stretch of the road from the Gool Poonawala garden leading up to the speed breakers is also riddled with potholes and gravel.

“It was drizzling and there was gravel on the road. I could not see the speed breaker at all and put brakes at the last moment, which led me to skid with the bike. I couldn’t leave the house for almost two weeks due to the injury. The right side of my body, including my shoulder and knee, was injured. My sister’s leg was also injured. I travelled on the same road a few days ago and it has become worse, nothing has changed,” said Nanavati.

A regular observer, who works at the Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (Officers) located on the same stretch of the road, told The Indian Express, “These speed breakers are invisible in the day, forget at night. Cars regularly scrape their underside on these speed breakers as they are not able to slow down their speed. And during monsoon, if there is any oil spillage on the road, then the cars skid when the drivers try to apply brakes at the last moment.”

When contacted, head of Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) road department Aniruddha Pawaskar told The Indian Express, “There are many speed breakers in the city that have been constructed without authorization of the traffic police and don’t conform to norms. We are in the process of demolishing these speed breakers and have also removed 180 of them. Speed breakers that are approved but don’t have paint on them need to be repainted and we will take that up as well.”

When asked for a timeline for fixing speed breakers across the city, Pawaskar said, “I cannot give a precise timeline as my whole team is busy in Assembly election work. Before that, we were busy with pothole fixing work during the monsoon. We will take up this issue after the elections and by the end of this year, we should be able to remove most of the speed breakers that don’t conform to norms or have not been approved.”