Rains drain Pune traffic department’s one-way plan on Karve Road

The Pune traffic department’s pilot plan to convert two-way Karve Road from Nal Stop to SNDT to one-way operation fell flat within one day when sudden downpour and subsequent traffic snarls forced authorities to drop the initiative on Monday. The move aimed at reducing disruption of traffic failed to serve purpose.

Ashok Morale, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Traffic said that the attempt was based on the observation and plan made by his department in the past 15 days. Traffic coming from Karve Nagar heading towards Deccan was diverted to left at Nal Stop instead of taking Paud Road and the attempt was carried out on a trial basis to decongest bottleneck caused at the junction where the two roads meet near SNDT, said DCP Morale.

Sufficient traffic police staff, including DCP Morale, were present at Nal Stop to carry out smooth implemention of the new diversion rule. However, hours after the traffic was diverted, the city witnessed the year’s first monsoon showers and traffic was disrupted. The traffic chaos caused due to the rain led to the withdrawal of the new diversion rule within a day. The downpour apart from causing traffic jams led to waterlogging in several parts, state-bus failure in five places, and signal post failure at four places, said DCP Morale, along with traffic jams across the city.

“The police monitored traffic movement following the implementation of new diversion rule mainly during peak hours between 9 am and to 11 am and 5 pm to 7 pm. Some citizens on Athavle Road have raised issues with the decision but our efforts were to reduce travel time by 20 minutes,” said DCP Morale.