The civic body has allotted Rs.67 crore more for widening the old Pune-Mumbai highway stretch in Khadki, after getting nod from the defence ministry.
The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC)’s standing committee this week decided to make the provision of Rs67 crore for the work to avoid further delays. The road widening-related works are expected to begin soon as the civic administration has initiated the tendering process to appoint the agency.
The project was dragging on owing to the non-availability of land. After discussions and deliberations, the civic administration got the permission to start the work from the defence ministry.
Regular commuters on the route have been saying that the widening of the stretch is long pending. The road users have been facing delays because of slow-moving traffic.
An official from the PMC said, “The tendering process has received responses from various agencies. We shall be completing the due process to see that the work gets going at the earliest.”
The administration has already made provision of Rs20 crore for the highway widening work in the civic budget for the current fiscal. The allotment of Rs67 crore will come in the next two years. There is a plan to widen a stretch of over 2km ahead of Central Hatcheries Chowk towards Khadki-Bopodi.
Some stretch of the road towards Bopodi has been widened. But a major portion of it near Khadki is still a four-lane road. It is proving insufficient to handle the traffic.
Hari Rajshekhar, who works at a company in Pimpri, said Khadki to Harris bridge was a major bottleneck. “Travellers spend at least 15 minutes to cross this stretch during the rush hours. The situation becomes worse in case of breakdown of any vehicles,” Rajshekhar said.
Smita Hole, another traveller, said most buses on the Pimpri-Pune-Pimpri route travel on the old highway via Khadki. The authorities, while widening the road stretch, should keep aside separate lane for buses and heavy vehicles.
The Metro work on Bopodi-Khadki stretch is in advanced stages. Traffic diversion is in place to assist the work.
