Ring road project veers toward the right path

Speaking with Newsline on Tuesday, P S Auti, executive engineer with MSRDC, Pune said a firm has been finalised for preparing the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the ring road.

“The work on in-house survey and preparation of DPR commenced recently. This could take around one-and-half-year to complete. 2015 would be crucial to the ring road project,” he said.

MSRDC is the nodal agency for the project that would connect highways such as Pune-Nashik, Mumbai-Pune-Solapur, Pune-Ahmednagar and Pune-Satara that pass either through Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad or skirt around these cities.

The ring road would decrease vehicular traffic on roads of Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad to a certain extent as heavy vehicles would bypass the two cities.

Congress Corporator Aba Bagul said the State government should pledge all possible support for expediting the project. “The Pune Municipal Corporation had approved the ring road project in 2005-06 and the delay has led to cost escalation. Land acquisition is one of the major issues confronting the project and cannot be overcome unless and until the State government assures ‘committed development certificate’ to land owners in the form of assured FSI or TDR. The coming year could give a boost to the project to this effect…,” he said.

Civic activist Vivek Velankar said land acquisition should be done simultaneously with preparation of the DPR and conduct of the in-house survey. “Cost is going to be a major consideration for the ring road project due to land acquisition and related issues. If the government takes care of this…it would help in speedy completion,” he told Newsline.