Bhima Koregaon anniversary: Pune rural police draw up plan for traffic diversions on Pune-Ahmednagar road

The district administration has made elaborate traffic arrangements to facilitate smooth movement of traffic on Pune-Ahmednagar road for the upcoming 201st anniversary of Bhima Koregaon at Vijay Stambh Obelisk on January 1.

Naval Kishore Ram, district collector has issued a circular which explains the alternative routes on the Pune -Ahmednagar road. Ram also explained that the said circular has been sent out to all government departments and travel companies.

The administration estimates that the at least 12 lakh people are expected to attend the commemoration event of the battle of Bhima Koregaon. The new traffic arrangement on the entire Pune-Ahmednagar route will come into effect from midnight of December 31, 2018 till midnight of January 1, 2019. Heavy vehicles coming from Ahmednagar to Pune from the main highway will be re-routed through the Shikrapur-Chakan road stretch.

Similarly, vehicles plying from Ahmednagar road to Hadapsar will be diverted to Shikrapur-Talegaon Dhamdere-Kedgaon-Chauphula-Solapur stretch.Commuters going to Ahmednagar from Pune will have to go via Chakan or Kharadi bypass via Hadapsar-Solapur-Kegaon Chauphula stretch. 

Shankar Adsule, owner of A K Travels Company said that traffic moving towards cities like Ahmednagar and Aurangabad will be drastically affected due to the new arrangement made by the administration. “ The alternate routes are good to travel but there is heavy vehicular flow. This new arrangement will add on more vehicles to the already congested road. The commuters are likely to get delayed by over an hour in reaching their destinations,”he said. Similarly, other travel companies too expressed fears that travelling would get delayed on the Pune-Ahmednagar highway and advised commuters to start a day in advance to save on time. 

Amar Deshmukh, an event manager from Pune said that new year revelers who want to reach Pune from cities like Aurangabad and Ahmednagar and other adjoining areas will have come to Pune a day in advance due to huge crowd expected to visit Bhima Koregaon. 

The Pune rural police has prepared a detailed Portable Document Format (pdf) map which has been sent to all police stations. It has also being circulated through WhatsApp so that it reached maximum number of residents.

Special IG Vishwas Nangre Patil gave a detailed presentation on the traffic plans to the media on Saturday. Patil said, “ We have planned in detail for the forthcoming commemoration event, so that the commuters don’t get stranded during their travel. We have used social media to promote the details of the traffic plans and have received good review from the residents ,” he said. 

Rural SP Sandip Patil said that the volunteers of Samta Sainik Dal will be assisting the traffic police in managing the traffic. “We have used technology, digital mapping, CCTV cameras and surveillance systems including drones in ensuring that there was no bottlenecks on January 1. Similarly, the residents of Bhima Koregaon have also pitched in and helped the police in coming up with the traffic plan. We appeal to the residents to follow the route which has been released by us,” he said