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This is an archive article published on November 24, 2014

PCMC and traffic police turn a blind eye, encroachers rule the highway

Second-hand car dealers, mechanics, street vendors have almost taken over stretches as pedestrian movement and smooth flow of vehicular traffic take the hit.

Be it Nigdi, Akurdi, Chinchwad, Nashik Phata, Kasarwadi, Phugewadi or Dapodi, “highway grabbers” are having a field day. Footpaths on both sides of the highway is rarely free for pedestrians. Be it Nigdi, Akurdi, Chinchwad, Nashik Phata, Kasarwadi, Phugewadi or Dapodi, “highway grabbers” are having a field day. Footpaths on both sides of the highway is rarely free for pedestrians.

On Friday, during a flash drive, as many as 10 traffic policemen placed themselves “strategically” at Nashik Phata chowk, catching two-wheelers riders and fining them for not wearing helmet. Just 100 steps from the spot, however, a number of four-wheelers were parked right on the Pune-Mumbai highway ostensibly for some repair work. The traffic police completely turned a blind eye towards this flagrant violation of norms, which has been hampering the vehicular movement on the highway for years now.

It is not just at Nashik Phata that you find footpath and a large chunk of highway occupied in an unauthorised manner. Right from Nigdi to Dapodi — the 13-km highway stretch within the jurisdiction of PCMC — the situation is no different anywhere. Second-hand car dealers, spare parts shops, mechanics and street vendors have in their separate individual capacities taken over the highway — unhindered and unchecked. They have not only taken possession of the footpath, but also a chunk of the highway where footpath was never constructed by the PCMC. “Everyday, the highway grabbers are brazening it out, but the PCMC and the traffic police remain mere spectators,” says civic activist D G Baliga.

And everything is happening right under PCMC’s nose. At Chinchwad, right from the junction up to the Highway Towers, the footpath on both sides of the highway is rarely free for pedestrians. From Pimpri Chowk to Chinchwad station, parking of vehicles gets preference over pedestrians. Similar is the case right in front of the PCMC headquarters.

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But the situation is far worse from Nashik Phata to Sandvik Company near Phugewadi. Here, the second car dealers and mechanics hold complete sway with their vehicles meant for repairs or sale parked right on the highway or the footpath. The CNG filling station located opposite Alfa Lava company has only added to the traffic chaos as vehicles form a serpentine queue right on the highway. What has compounded the matter for smooth movement of vehicular traffic is the demarcation done for BRTS lane. With BRTS on one side and a portion of the highway occupied on the other, the free flow of vehicular movement is getting hampered almost daily.

Over six years ago, when the road work was completed, it was believed to be the one-of-its-kind highway stretch dotted with grade separators and flyovers. It was constructed at a cost of Rs 400 crore during the tenure of then municipal commissioner Dilip Band who had carried out a massive demolition drive before making the wide road a reality in the industrial town. In fact, Pimpri-Chinchwad has a one-of-its-kind flyover in Maharashtra that crosses a river, roads and rail tracks. Constructed at a cost of Rs 120 crore with help from the World Bank, the flyover was thrown open to traffic in February. “The PCMC and traffic police seem to have virtually handed over the road to land grabbers,” says another activist Rajendra Verma.

PCMC City Engineer Mahavir Kamble said the highway was with the PCMC for maintenance and nobody had the right to take it over. He, however, could not explain as to why PCMC had turned a blind eye towards the highway grabbers. “We will act,” he said.

PCMC Commissioner Rajiv Jadhav, too, sort of feigned ignorance about the illegally occupied stretches. “We will take action against them….nobody should disturb the free flow of traffic,” he said. Jadhav too could not explain why his officers had been turning a blind eye to this blatant violation.

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The response of traffic police was no different. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Sarang Awad threw the ball in the PCMC’s court. “The highway is PCMC’s property and they should take action…,” he said. Asked if the traffic police should be mere spectators, he said: “It is the PCMC that has to act in this case.”

Residents and activists are, meanwhile, angry. “Is the traffic police only meant to stand at the junctions and catch signal violators? Are they not supposed to ensure free flow of traffic on the highway? Why can’t they take the violators to task? Why can’t they take up the issue with the PCMC,” asks Shridhar Chalkha of the Common People’s Front.

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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