Road development top priority in Pune, yet lone hot mix plant exploited beyond capacity

PUNE: Close to 10% of the civic body's Rs 9,515-crore budget for the year 2023-24 has been allocated to road development in the city.
However, while this Rs 900 crore is being dedicated to resurfacing, repairs and building new roads, the lone hot mix plant that supplies raw material for roads across the city still remains ignored.
In fact, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) road department's proposal to build a second hot mix plant has been nixed, with no provision made for the same even in this time's budget.
The existing hot mix plant is located in Yerawada and is highly overused, said civic officials. It opened in December 2016 and has since then produced 8.8 lakh metric tonnes of hot mix till March this year.
Of this, 5.3 lakh MT was dense bituminous macadam, 3.5 lakh MT was asphalt concrete. However, the plant's actual production capacity spanning this period of seven years and three months was only 4.5 lakh MT.
Due to clear overuse, the plant's spare parts have also been damaged and are not performing efficiently, resulting in frequent shutdowns.
Between April 2022 and March 2023, the plant was shut for at least 100 days. During the four months of the monsoon as well, the plant is shut on days when it rains.
Meera Sabnis, superintendent engineer of the PMC road department, verified, "The plant has far exceeded its production capacity by almost double. The hot mix plant is important because city roads constantly need to be resurfaced and repaired."
Commenting on the developments, PMC additional municipal commissioner Vikas Dhakne told TOI, "Even if there is no separate provision in the budget, the road department can reallocate funds available for a second hot mix plant. If we do require it and the current one is indeed overused, we will make a second one over the course of the upcoming year."
On the other hand, activists stated that PMC should not rely on hot mix plants at all.
Civic activist Vivek Velankar reasoned, "Hot mix plants are mostly shut during the monsoons as temperatures are too low for them to operate. Ironically, they are needed the most during the rains as roads are damaged badly at this time. It is a waste of public funds. People suffer due to this lack of management between agencies. The hot mix plant is important, but the civic body needs to think of ways to build better roads and maintain them."