AFTER being under construction for several months, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has finally re-opened the concretised stretch between Karishma building and Karve statue for traffic on Thursday. Last month, activists and residents of the area protested in a unique manner by cutting a cake as the repair work on Karve Road entered its third year.
The re-construction of Karve Road is a part of the PMC’s Integrated Road Development Project (IRDP). The civic administration initiated work on the busy road on May 16, 2005 giving a deadline of nine months excluding monsoon for completion of work. However, 24 months and two deadlines later, the work is still moving at a snail’s pace
Deputy mayor Chandrakant Mokate has written a letter to municipal commissioner Pravinsinh Pardeshi asking to expedite the re-construction work. Mokate, a Shiv Sena leader, has threatened to launch an agitation if the stretches on the road are not opened to commuters immediately.
Mokate further said that Valecha engineers who are the contractors for Karve Road, currently have four road projects under the IRDP. “However, the contractor has not been able to complete work on a single site. He has been ignoring the Karve Road work, thus causing grave problems to the residents and commuters,” he said.
The civic administration has been a giving number of excuses for the delay of re-construction of the road like no co-oporation from the traffic police etc. Civic officials had stated that work on the road cannot be undertaken during day time because of the heavy flow of traffic and refusal of permission from the traffic officials for undertaking construction work during the day time. It also blamed the traffic department for lack of co-operation in constructing the stretch from Khandojibaba Chowk to Paud flyover.
Although activists and politicians have been demanding of scrapping the contract with Valecha engineers, the civic administration had stated that this would result in the re-tendering process and other formalities which would further add to the delay.