Pune: Katraj-Kondhwa Road work drags on, commuters at loss

PUNE: A seemingly never-ending road-widening work has made commute a nightmare on the Katraj-Kondhwa stretch. Diversions and poor road condition have made matters worse, regular commuters said.
The Pune Municipal Corporation has not been able to finish even 50% of the proposed widening work on the 3.5km stretch in the last four years due to non-availability of land. The existing 20-metre road has been proposed to be widened to 50 metres. However, a demand from landowners to pay compensation only in cash has delayed the acquisition of land required for widening.
Sanjay Hire, a local resident, said that the work should be completed at the earliest to reduce the daily hardships faced by commuters. "The administration should have worked on a plan to acquire the land before the launch of the project. Now, haphazard work is leading to more problems," Hire said.
The administration has sought Rs300 crore from the state government for paying compensation to landowners, but the funds are awaited. The Katraj-Kondhwa road is a crucial stretch connecting Katraj to Saswad and Solapur highways. Besides local traffic, the stretch witnesses movement of heavy vehicles throughout the day.
Manjula Yadav, another resident, said, "The road remains choc-a-bloc with vehicles throughout the day. Many new housing projects are coming up in the area, resulting in more vehicles and chaos on the stretch. Tilekarnagar, Shatrunjay mandir, Kondhwa turn and Khadi Machine Chowk have become bottleneck points."
A PMC official said, "About 30% of the widening work is over. We are in talks with landowners, but they are firm on cash compensation. There is a plan to develop an 84-metre-wide road. However, considering the challenges in land acquisition, the administration is looking at developing a 50-metre-wide road, which will have lanes for vehicular traffic and service roads." Administration sources said that deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had promised adequate funds for road infrastructure projects during inauguration of a flyover at Yerawada in January.