Residents complain of delay in slope reduction work at NIBM Annex entrance

Residents of Undri, NIBM Road, Mohammadwadi and Kondhwa have urged that the slope reduction work outside Anandvan Main Gate be completed as soon as possible. Residents in the area have claimed that sluggish development could jeopardise the traffic situation in June with the onset of the monsoon season.

More than 10, 000 residents in the locality have been affected due to the ongoing road work. The PMC roads department is spending ₹3 crore to reduce the slope from 10 feet to 3 feet and reconstruct it to a width of 24 metres.

The authority had started digging the slope since the first week of February and sent out a message that it was going to construct one side of the road and open it to traffic.

However, the PMC unilaterally closed the entire road for traffic a month ago without consulting citizens, area residents, or traffic police, resulting in a serpentine quest on the Mohammadwadi-Undri and Mohammadwadi-NIBM link roads.

Both roads are currently in poor condition and have been neglected for the past five years. Residents claimed that the PMC was building good infrastructure in only a select few areas of the city while ignoring Mohammawadi and Undri, where it has collected taxes worth over ₹224 crores since 2015.

NIBM Annexe Citizens Forum director Daljeet Goraya stated, “Previously, the PMC authorities informed us that the road construction work would be completed as soon as possible and that one side of the road would be open for traffic by April 30. However, things appear to be very different, and slow digging work is still ongoing. If the tunnelling work is not completed on time, Mohammawadi people will face a disastrous rainy season since they would have to rely on the lone Marvel Sangria connecting road to Undri and the NIBM road, both of which are in poor condition,” he said.

Sunil Koloti, a member of the Nyati County Citizens Forum who has petitioned the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) seeking quality road and water infrastructure in the area lambasted the roads department for its ineptitude.

“There is a loss of valuable man-hours due to bumper-to-bumper traffic from Undri and Mohammadwadi to NIBM. When does the PMC intend to finish the slope reduction work and resurface the NIBM-Mohammadwadi link road? Despite collecting crores in taxes, the PMC does nothing on the ground for the citizens of the area,” he claimed.

Despite the forest department’s in-principle clearance for land acquisition and other modalities, the project was further stalled because neighbouring societies objected to parting with their land, which entailed destroying their fencing walls. Both the NIBM Citizens Forum and the Anandvan Parisar Residents Citizens Forum have worked hard to address the matter, filing a series of petitions with the state and federal governments.

Reacting to the development, PMC sub-engineer Avinash Kamthe said, “During the ongoing digging, we are encountering a lot of cables and wires that require careful attention and extraction. However, we will make every effort to open one side of the road as soon as possible.”