KCB decides to widen killer stretch

PUNE, Jan 20: Commuters battling their way through the killer stretch between the Government Poultry Farm to Khadki railway station on th...

PUNE, Jan 20: Commuters battling their way through the killer stretch between the Government Poultry Farm to Khadki railway station on the Pune-Mumbai highway have little hope of reprieve. The highway authorities have written to the Khadki Cantonment Board KCB informing the officials of their inability to widen this stretch because of the lack of funds.

KCB hopes to take a leaf from both the Pune Municipal Corporation and Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation and complete the task. Chief executive officer Ajay Kumar said the board would now send a proposal to the Southern Command headquarters seeking sanction to do the work themselves. quot;We cannot afford to ignore this. So many accidents occur on this stretch,quot; he said admitting that the national highway was not in a very good condition.

The work of shifting the electricity poles from the roads has already begun, he revealed.

The Pune Municipal Corporation PMC and the Khadki Cantonment Board KCB have been at loggerheads over the apparent indifference shown by the latter in going ahead with its Rs 73 lakh project for a divider and street lights on the highway. Cantonment Executive Officer Ajay Kumar told The Indian Express that the board could go ahead with this plan only after national highway authorities expressed willingness to widen the stretch.

A letter sent by the highway authorities to the cantonment board yesterday clearly mentions that they would be unable to take up the road-widening project since this no longer formed a part of the national highway which now is the westerly bypass from Katraj to Dehu Road and moreover no funds were available for this project. The road-widening programme will require around Rs. 12 lakh. Significantly, the work has been awaiting sanction for the past three years because the cantonment board was awaiting the green signal from the highway to widen this road. Moreover, a majority of streetlights on this stretch have not been functioning for many years.

Around 27 accidents have occurred near the Poultry Farm chowk claiming the lives of Lt Paras S Chadda from 119 Engineer Regiment in January last year and an autorickshaw driver Prakash Gosavi. In December, the board had issued orders for widening and asphalting which was stuck for want of a formal sanction from the highway authorities. However, they put a spoke in the wheel by refusing to take on the task.

The CEO however, declined to comment on the stalls on the highway saying that the land still belonged to the highway authorities and hence the board was not in a position to take a decision on these stalls. The stalls had kicked up a major row with the report presented by the Director General of Defence Estates, New Delhi directing the board to immediately remove the illegal stalls from the national highway but the CEO maintained that the board had no locus standi since the property still belonged to the highway authorities.