After 5 yrs, PMC bags the land to widen key road to Kalyani Nagar

LONG-PENDING BOTTLENECK TO POP OPEN

Civic body struggled for half a decade to convince Joseph Colony to hand over land for widening route struck by traffic snarls, from Vadgaonsheri along The Bishop’s School; finally, correct compensation was offered

The five-year-long wait by residents of the city’s burgeoning Vadgaonsheri area to have their much-needed access route freed of daily traffic snarls is finally bearing fruit. In the next few months, the road in front of Bishop’s School in Kalyani Nagar that connects to Vadgaonsheri is finally expected to be widened by Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), as the latter has managed to acquire land required for the project, over which they were haggling for the last half decade. In the process, residents of this area and commuters through it had been left struggling to deal with serpentine traffic snarls on a daily basis.

The route parallel to Ahmednagar Road from Hari Nagar has The Bishop’s Co-Ed School, Kalyani Nagar, situated at one end, while the other end goes towards Vadgaonsheri — and it is extremely narrow, unable to support the sheer volume of traffic it sees. Along its one side is a stone fencing wall beyond which lies the Joseph Colony, which has for long been reluctant to hand over its land to widen the road into, fearing lack of proper compensation from the civic body.

But finally, PMC agreed to the terms of Joseph Colony members, convincing them to do the needful.

“For all these years, residents and commuters thought we were doing nothing to widen the road,” said former Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) city president Jagdish Mulik, who has represented the area, adding, “But in the background, we were tirelessly holding meetings after meetings with the stakeholders to convince them to give us the land for road widening, in larger public interest. Finally, members of Joseph Colony have given PMC the possession and now, roadwork has started.”


The slim road is seen as an alternative route for Vadgaonsheri residents to get to Kalyani Nagar without using the ever-crowded Nagar Road. However, especially during peak hours, it transforms into an utter nightmare, bolstering the constant demand from local residents to widen it.

Dinesh Sinha, who resides in this locality, said, “The road is quite convenient for us to travel between two key areas. However, the narrow patch of around 150 metres near Bishop’s School creates a bottleneck, causing vehicular snarls right in front of the school. We have been demanding that the civic authorities widen the road for long now, considering the growing commuter population using it.”

PMC officials asserted that it took this long because they were in talks with members of Joseph Colony, who were in a dilemma as to whether to give up the land or not. PMC deputy engineer Sanjay Dharav elaborated, “It took us nearly half a decade to convince them. In this period, it so happened that each time they showed some willingness, we would prepare a proposal, but they would renege on their decision. This made it difficult for PMC to carry out any road work here.”

Now, civic authorities have given monetary compensation against the land handed over by the colony. “Usually, PMC either gives the additional floor space index (FSI) or transfer of development rights (TDR) against land. However, FSI or TDR is useful for developers, who are going to construct at remaining properties. The members of Joseph Colony stated that it is not of much use to them, so PMC gave nearly Rs 4.5 crore to the committee against the land acquired,” Dharav added.

As per Joseph Colony committee members, they gave up the land in the name of larger public interest. Their secretary Vijay Sathe explained, “We did not want to create any trouble for the common citizens. We also wanted PMC to work on reducing traffic congestion, but we were waiting for a justifiable compensation. Since PMC has given us monetary compensation now, we have happily given up the land for the road-widening.”

Now, PMC is looking to finish the road work in the next couple of months. Local corporator Yogesh Mulik said, “Students of the school on the stretch were facing a lot of traffic problems due to the bottleneck created and there were numerous complaints from local residents to work on road-widening. Since we now have possession of the required land, the aim is to finish the project in the next few months so that by the next academic year, there will be a wider road for the students to use.”