Finally, resolution in sight for traffic issues at Katraj Junction

PMC set to pay ₹21.57 crore to acquire land for construction of flyover at junction

PUNE: Twenty-five years later, the persistent traffic issues at Katraj Junction appear close to being resolved with the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) set to pay ₹21.57 crore as cash compensation to the owner of a 6,200 square foot land parcel to be handed over to the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) for construction of a flyover billed as panacea for the traffic congestion at Katraj Junction.

An official from the PMC’s land acquisition department said that the state government’s revenue department has completed the demarcation and measurement of the land. “After receiving a formal letter from the revenue department, the PMC will submit the case to the land acquisition officer, who will calculate the compensation amount based on the ready reckoner rate. While the final figure is yet to be calculated, the estimated compensation stands at ₹21.57 crore. After the compensation award letter is issued, the PMC will pay 30% of the amount, allowing the handover process to begin. This process is expected to take about a month,” the official said.

Sudhir Chavan, executive engineer of the Katraj-Kondhwa Road department, stressed on the importance of this land in resolving the traffic issues at Katraj Junction. “The NHAI is constructing a six-lane flyover, which is part of a larger plan to ease traffic congestion in the area. The flyover will stretch 1,326 metre in length and 24.20 metre in width, running from the Pune-Mumbai Bypass to the Kondhwa-Katraj Road,” he said.

For the past more than two decades, Katraj Junction has been dogged by traffic problems despite construction of a flyover on the Katraj-Kondhwa Road near Katraj Zoo. The delay in acquiring the said land has primarily been due to reluctance on the part of its owner, Sanjay Gugale, to relinquish it. It is only after the then additional municipal commissioner, Vikas Dhakane, intervened in the matter that Gugale responded positively and agreed to handover the land to the PMC.

Initially, the PMC offered Gugale transfer of development rights (TDR) as compensation, but he declined the offer and filed a writ petition. In 2005, the court ruled that the PMC could not encroach upon or utilise the land unless it was legally acquired. The 2017 Development Plan (DP) shifted the land’s designation from a ‘park’ to a 60-metre road, clearing the decks for the NHAI’s flyover project.

In 2022, the PMC tried to invoke the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation, and Resettlement Act, 2013, which ensures that landowners receive fair compensation—at least twice the market value for rural land and up to four times the market value for urban land. It is based on this act that Gugale’s land was valued at an estimated ₹21.57 crore.

When contacted, Gugale said that the PMC had reserved his land as early as in the 1987 Development Plan (DP) and while PMC officials kept contacting him multiple times over the years, earlier proposals for compensation failed. The high court eventually ordered the PMC to begin the land acquisition process. Expressing frustration over the slow pace of progress yet confirming his readiness to handover the land once he received the compensation as per the 2013 act, Gugale said, “We understand how people are suffering and don’t want to cause trouble, but the officials are not showing interest in speeding up the process.”