PUNE, Nov 1: With the city's population likely to cross the one crore mark around 2024, it calls for some serious re-thinking to shoulder such a huge burden, feels city engineer Madhav Harihar, who retired on Saturday after 34 years of service with the Pune Municipal Corporation.After such a long stint, Harihar is leaving the PMC having been a witness to the best and the worst that the city has undergone. The man who was the vital cog in the PMC machinery feels that traffic situation was one of the most important issues that needs to be addressed. ``With the vehicle population ballooning out of proportion in the recent times, numerous steps had to be initiated.''Harihar points out that the widening of the Jungli Maharaj Road and the Chiplunkar Road was significant considering the growing congestion on these roads. But he feels more needs to be done and the mass transit system would be ideal to deal with the city's traffic problems. Another problem that the city needs to take up on priority is the rapidly mushrooming slums, he says.
