Building Pune: 700 missing links on roads across Pune city, shows civic body estimate

Existing development plan has 562 missing road links totalling 263.10 km; officials say the incomplete stretches are due to land acquisition issues, which are being resolved

Officials said these missing road stretches, ranging from below 100m to 1,000m and more, comprise land that is stuck in the acquisition process. The civic body has started contacting individual landowners to resolve the issue, they said.

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AN ONGOING mapping exercise being carried out by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to review existing infrastructure and find solutions to ease the traffic squeeze has led to the identification of 700 “missing links” on various roads, all adding up to an estimated total of around 520 km across the entire city, according to records reviewed by The Indian Express.

The estimate of 700 missing links totalling 520 km is based on sanctioned and proposed development plans, records show. It includes 562 missing links totalling 263.10 km on roads that’s officially recorded in the existing development plan (see box).

Part of the long list are three link roads of various lengths connecting Pashan Road with Baner Road, two roads connecting Warje with Rajaram Bridge through riverside, a bridge over Mula river connecting Sangamwadi with Wakdewadi, and a 180 metre road connecting Kondhwa Road with BG Lonkar road parallel to Salunke Vihar.

The estimate covers the 23 villages that were added to PMC limits from the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) in 2021 but do not figure on the sanctioned plan. Besides, the development plan of 11 other villages under PMC limits has not yet been published.

Referring to the 263.10 km identified on the existing sanctioned plan, Vikas Dhakane, PMC additional municipal commissioner, said, “The sanctioned DP (Development Plan) includes old PMC limits and 23 villages along with Yeolewadi. We geo-referenced and digitised all the DP sheets and marked all missing links in the sanctioned area. A majority of missing links are on roads with width of 18m and below, and of length less than 1,000m.”

“The main issue with missing links is land acquisition problems across several years. The PMC is now focused on removing the missing links by acquiring the small plots needed for completing the roads. This will provide connectivity and traffic dispersal thereby reducing congestion on roads,” Dhakane said.

V G Kulkarni, in-charge of the civic road department, said it has been decided to focus first on small parcels of unacquired stretches less than 100m on the sanctioned development plan. “There are 77 missing stretches of less than 100m. If they are solved, traffic in the area will ease. The maximum number of such missing links are 317 on stretches between 100m and 500m. This will be taken up in the next stage. The PMC will have to spend a few thousand crores for these missing links to be removed,” Kulkarni said, adding that “it will take time” to complete the process.

The PMC has also identified 14 such missing links totalling 25 km in its feasibility study for the proposed 75-km intermediate High Capacity Mass Transit Route (HCMTR), or the ring road, project. Traffic and land acquisition studies for all these links are in progress, Kulkarni said, adding that the missing links on intermediate ring road have been taken up separately on priority.

263 km of missing links on record