Top priority for easterly by-pass sought

NEW DELHI, May 20: The Kumari Rajshree Parmar Memorial Foundation has sought top priority for the long-pending Katraj-Loni Kalbhor-Loni Kand...

NEW DELHI, May 20: The Kumari Rajshree Parmar Memorial Foundation has sought top priority for the long-pending Katraj-Loni Kalbhor-Loni Kand easterly by-pass project, along with the State Public Works Department’s ambitious Rs 300 crore fly-overs scheme for Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad to ease the traffic situation in Pune.

“We, the citizens of Pune, want the easterly by-pass. It should be accorded top priority to ensure an accident-free Pune by diverting the existing movement of vehicles through Seven Loves chowk, to and from Pune-Bangalore, Pune-Solapur and Pune-Ahmednagar highways beyond the city limits,” Rajshree Parmar Memorial Foundation chairman and managing trustee Chandmal Parmar told media persons here today.

Parmar, in a memorandum addressed to State Public Works Department (PWD) Minister Nitin Gadkari, has sought to caution him on the omission of the easterly by-pass project from the PWD scheme. He has urged the Minister to integrate the by-pass project, estimated to cost about Rs 130 crore, with its fly-overs scheme.

The vehicles arriving from south Maharashtra and heading towards Solapur or Ahmednagar and vice-versa would continue to ply on the Shankarsheth and Gultekdi Market Yard roads in the congested areas of Pune, leaving behind a spate of fatal mishaps. The construction of fly-overs, by itself, cannot be an effective alternative, since this traffic could be diverted outside the city limits only via the proposed easterly by-pass, according to Parmar.

Furthermore, after the recent merger of 36 villages into the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), limits the proposed easterly by-pass would serve as a major arterial link in the future. Besides, it would aid the proposed circular road scheme to ease the traffic pressure on city roads.

He, however, regretted that the implementation of the by-pass project was being deliberately neglected by the PWD authorities over the years, despite conducting the demarcation exercise on a couple of occasions, for reasons best known to them. This had led to mushrooming of encroachments along the proposed alignment of the by-pass, which fell within PWD’s jurisdiction till the recent merger of villages into PMC limits.

It was only because of the PWD’s failure that the chaotic traffic conditions in the Seven Loves chowk had aggravated during the past few years. At least 15 to 20 fatal mishaps occur during a year at this spot, where the movement of traffic was twice that of on a two-lane highway. The authorities had failed to act despite four incidents of rasta rokos by citizens last year, according to Parmar.

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He rejected the argument put forth by the PWD authorities that the proposed Kapurhol-Narayanpur-Saswad-Chauphula by-pass would help divert the highway traffic entering the city, since the proposed alignment passed through villages and a pilgrim centre, where plying extra long trailers and tankers transporting hazardous chemicals would not be practicable.

It was argued by Parmar that the construction of the fly-overs without considering these points would be against the interests of the Puneites. The easterly by-pass would ease the pressure of traffic even on the approach roads to the fly-overs.