Prepare 10-yr plan to ease traffic: Pune divisional commissioner

Pune: Divisional commissioner Dr Chandrakant Pulkundwar on Friday highlighted the need to ease congestion in the city, directing local authorities to prepare a 10-year traffic management plan and prioritise improvement of 90 major junctions across Pune.Pulkundwar was speaking during a traffic management plan review meeting attended by civic, police and infrastructure agencies.He said all departments must plan traffic regulations and management based on micro-details and requirements for the next decade. He instructed the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to prepare a priority list of missing links on major roads. The list needed to also focus on bottleneck removal, road widening, footpaths and complete corridor-level improvements, with supporting infrastructure to streamline movement. "A coordinated implementation is essential. Planning by agencies must align with long-term projections and ground realities,'' he said.MahaMetro managing director Shravan Hardikar spoke of the necessity to demarcate hawker zones, identify implementing agencies based on jurisdiction, prepare a comprehensive list of works and develop a time-bound action plan to avoid overlaps and delays.Road-widening proposals at 90 major junctions, allocation of public utility spaces for hawkers, installation of streetlights, creation of space for unclaimed vehicles, traffic plans based on technology, clearance of pending e-challans, appointment of traffic consultants and increase in traffic police manpower were also discussed.Officials said improving junctions and corridors would help reduce congestion, improve traffic flow and strengthen urban mobility infrastructure.Joint commissioner of police Ranjankumar Sharma, PCMC commissioner Dr Vijay Suryavanshi, PMRDA commissioner Dr Abhijit Chaudhari, Pune ZP CEO Gajanan Patil, NHAI project director Sanjay Kadam and additional CP Manoj Patil were present at the meeting along with officials from local authorities and the police department.inset/// SUBHEAD: Tanker owners supplying contaminated water to face actionNisha.NambiarPune: Divisional commissioner Dr Chandrakant Pulkundwar on Friday directed local authorities to ensure adequate water allocation to housing societies and take strict action against tanker owners supplying contaminated water.The directions were issued in a meeting held in compliance with the Bombay HC order in a 2023 PIL. It addressed water supply issues and was attended by representatives of all local and civic bodies as well as housing federation representatives.Pulkundwar instructed PMC, PCMC and PMRDA to conduct regular reviews, provide tankers where needed and strictly implement the Maharashtra Groundwater Act. Authorities were directed to make borewell permissions mandatory and upload water supply guarantee certificates on their portals.PMRDA commissioner Dr Abhijit Chaudhari said local-level water testing would be conducted and complaints related to building permissions and occupancy addressed. Housing federation representatives raised water supply concerns.Strict instructions were issued to attend the meeting, since several local authorities' representatives were absent in an earlier one.