Pune civic chief orders wider airport roads, encroachment removal after inspection

Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) Commissioner Naval Kishore Ram on Tuesday inspected the main roads leading to Pune airport. To ease traffic on these roads, he told officials to speed up road-widening work, remove encroachments and complete land acquisition.

Ram inspected Viman Nagar, Symbiosis Road, Nagpur Chawl, 509 Chowk and North Main Road. He reviewed the work under way at each location and told officials to complete pending projects as soon as possible.

In Viman Nagar, he visited VVIP Road, Symbiosis Road and Shubh Chowk. Handcarts, hawkers and other encroachments on the roadside were found to be obstructing traffic. He said the departments concerned should identify the exact spots and carry out anti-encroachment drives regularly so that congestion does not recur.

He also inspected Symbiosis Road, which links the Ramwadi underpass to the airport. Officials were instructed to widen this road to 30 metres, as shown in the approved development plan (DP).

Ram also reviewed work on the route to the airport via Nagpur Chawl, the Jail Road police chowky, 509 Chowk and Wakefield Chowk. A proposed road from 509 Chowk to Dhanori Main Road, which will pass through Air Force land, was also discussed. He asked officials to arrange a meeting with representatives of the Air Force station at Lohegaon to take the project forward.

The roads department was instructed to complete the work under way on North Main Road as soon as possible. He directed that the departments concerned give priority to acquiring land for a 30-metre-wide road planned under Section 205 near Aero Mall in the airport area.

The purpose of the inspection was to move infrastructure projects along quickly and make the airport easier to reach. The civic administration was also told to work with other departments concerned on widening roads, removing encroachments and completing pending development works.

Additional Municipal Commissioners Prajit Nair and Omprakash Diwate, Additional Commissioner of Police Manoj Patil and Deputy Commissioner Tushar Babar were present during the inspection. Also present were Rajesh Banker, chief engineer of the roads department; Somnath Banker, deputy commissioner of the encroachment department; PMC Assistant Commissioner Sanjay Pol; and officials of the roads department, the building development department and the Nagar Road-Wagholi ward office.