Pune: Flyover wing ready but BJP, NCP spar over inauguration

Meanwhile, a grade separator in the same area, for which only finishing touches remain, is said to be part of the same tussle, PCMC officials added.

The newly built flyover at Sai Chowk. (Express photo: Rajesh Stephan)

Part of a flyover at Sai Chowk near Pimple Saudagar, for which construction had been in progress, is now ready for vehicular traffic. However, Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) sources said that it is still out of bounds because of a tussle between the ruling BJP and the NCP over who should inaugurate the structure.

Meanwhile, a grade separator in the same area, for which only finishing touches remain, is said to be part of the same tussle, PCMC officials added.

Once they are inaugurated, the flyover’s wing and grade separator are expected to ease a major traffic bottleneck for vehicles from Pimple Saudagar, Aundh, Kalewadi, Thergaon and other nearby areas. Work on the two structures had started three years ago. The flyover was constructed by the Pimpri-Chinchwad Newtownship Development Authority (PCNTDA), while the grade separator’s work was undertaken by the PCMC.
The PCNTDA first constructed one wing of the flyover from Ravet to Aundh, which was opened to vehicular traffic last year.
“I don’t when it (the second wing) will be thrown open to the vehicular traffic, our CEO will take the call,” said PCNTDA executive engineer Prabhakar Vasaikar. The flyover was constructed at a cost of Rs 22 crore.
As for the grade separator, PCMC executive engineer Shrikant Savane, “We are still giving it the finishing touches.” He added that the grade separator will be thrown open to the public in a fortnight and denied that it was being held up for political reasons.
Both PCNTDA and PCMC officials said they were waiting for political leaders to inaugurate the flyover.
“I have already told the PCMC and PNCTDA to inaugurate the projects in public interest… We have urged them to inaugurate the works at the hands of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar,” said local NCP corporator Nana Kate.
BJP MLA Laxman Jagtap, in whose Chinchwad Assembly constituency both projects are based, said his party wants former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to inaugurate the project. “We will soon decide,” he said.

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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