Year-old trench claimed the two lives

PUNE, April 19: While the police attribute the death of two scooterists near Ajmera Colony in Pimpri on April 3, to rash driving, the res...

PUNE, April 19: While the police attribute the death of two scooterists near Ajmera Colony in Pimpri on April 3, to rash driving, the residents claim that a 8220;trench dug up a year back8221; and the shoody state of road were responsible for the unfortunate incidents.

Mahadev Ganacharya 37 and Shashidhar Bansode 25 were killed when they were hit by a speeding motorcycle. They were proceeding towards MHADA complex near Ajmera society when a motorcycle banged into them around 10.45 p.m.

8220;The entire stretch of one and half kilometre road has been dug up on both sides. One side PCMC8217;s pipeline work and on large part of both sides of the road cable laying work is on at an excrutiatling slow pace,8221; says Santosh Kulkarni.

He adds: 8220;The spot where the accident occurred is a complete mess. A nearly five feet deep trench right infront of a residential had maintained its status quo for a year now. And on the opposite side a two feet deep trench runs for quite a distance. Consequently, the road width is reduced to barely 8 feet.8221;

Concurs Louis Swami, another resident: 8220;The road is a popular short-cut to the industrial estate in Bhosari, and thus handles heavy traffic. It has been in a state of disrepair and minimal functionality for the last three months. Practically, every alternate day one or the other kind mishap takes place on the road.8221;

A spot visit by a Pune Newsline team revealed that the entire one and half kilometre road has been dug up at several spots, either for pipeline work or for laying cables. Even the construction material has been dumped indiscriminately. For a quite distance, the road width hovers between 8 feet and 12 feet. It8217;s only access route to the residents of Masulkar Colony where a row of bungalows line up both sides of the road. Even the electricity poles are protruding on the road.

The T-junction where the mishap occurred has a blind corner. Compounding the problem is the presence of a provision store at the corner on one side and a boundary wall of Ajmera Colony on the other. No speed-breaker has been stalled at this crucial turn.

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Curiously, the huge trench infront of the residential society 8211; which the residents alleged had been dug up a year back 8211; was quickly covered with stones and soil a day after the misahp. When contacted, both the PCMC and the telephone official at Chinchwad denied that they had anything to do with it.

Telecom area mananger Sandeep Goyal said: 8220;We do not require huge trenches and the trench at Masulkar Colony where the mishap occured was certainly not dug by us8221;.

PCMC8217;s assistant commissioner R D Gaikwad too said the PCMC has nothing to do with the trench. 8220;It might have been dug for telephone work.8221; He added that PCMC8217;s pipeline work is on and has not been stopped.