Pune Maha Metro’s road diversion plan fails to serve purpose

An experiment executed jointly by Pune Traffic Police and Maha Metro on Tuesday to decongest the road between Nashik phata and Kharalwadi, to carry out metro works, went wrong as the new rules led to severe traffic.

Traffic police caught several commuters breaking rules by riding on the wrong side of the road thus, increasing traffic jam near Kharalwadi. With an aim to stop people from using the main road, motorists were asked to use the service road instead, increasing the distance for commuters.

According to a statement y the traffic police, the changes were implemented between 8 am to 8 pm on Tuesday. This traffic arrangement was suggest to the Maha Metro by College of Engineering Pune (COEP) with an aim to decongest the volume of traffic thus making more space for the metro construction.

Shrinivas Kulkarni, chief project manager of Maha Metro said, “This has been done on an experimental basis and based on the results, we will decide on extending this experiment and make the necessary changes further.” A call will be taken on continuing this new system after studying the traffic flow in the evening, the chief project manager added. 

However, after witnessing the massive traffic congestion on the road, Rajesh Patil, a commuter said, “The results were not as expected as this experiment will lead to more traffic jams specially in the evening hours. Though police had placed signboards, commuters were still facing problems and confusion which was causing more traffic jam.”  

According to the Maha Metro authority, construction works for the pillar was being carried out after the authorities barricaded half of the concrete road at Nashik Phata. After this, traffic was moving on a single lane of the main concrete road near the metro work site. It was causing congestion and inconvenience to both commuters and the metro construction. This congestion may also cause a delay in metro construction work.

To avoid such situations, College of Engineering Pune (COEP) was appointed as consultants by Maha Metro authorities to create a detailed traffic plan. COEP had previously conducted traffic surveys for coming up with suitable diversion plans considering the safety and convenience of the citizens. Based on their surveys and data collected, they created a suitable diversion plan.