Journalism of Courage
Days after facing angry commuters in the Chandani Chowk area of Pune on the Mumbai-Bangalore Highway, the Maharashtra chief minister said Sunday the bottlenecks on the route will be removed soon.
Eknath Shinde visited Chandani Chowk Sunday afternoon after facing irate commuters Friday while heading to Satara from Mumbai. When Shinde was stuck in a traffic jam near Chandani Chowk on the busy highway, commuters had met him and requested him to resolve the issue. He had called up senior officers and had asked them to resolve the issue.
“The existing bridge will be demolished with a controlled blasting method and officers have contacted a Noida firm for this purpose. Following the demolition, additional lanes will open up for traffic. I have given instructions to all the involved agencies to work on a war footing to resolve the issue,” Shinde told media persons on the spot Sunday.
He said that until the lanes are opened up, 100 traffic wardens will be deployed on the stretch to speed up the traffic. He said that Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad police have been instructed not to argue about jurisdiction and find solutions.
Shinde was accompanied by senior officials, including the Pune collector, municipal commissioners of Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, police commissioners of Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad as well as officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and reviewed the plans proposed by the authorities to ease the traffic bottlenecks.
Some of these officials had visited the area a day before.
Commuters have been facing traffic jams every day on this stretch as the NHAI has been building a flyover in the area.
