In view of the upcoming G20 summit event, the Pune corporation is planning to stop the metro rail work in the city as it is cited as the major reason behind the traffic chaos, for which the administration has often been severely criticised.
Guardian minister Chandrakant Patil on Thursday reviewed the preparations for the G20 event, which will have delegates from around 36 countries.
“The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is responsible for the civic infrastructure-related work, which includes the repair and beautification of roads on which the delegates would commute during the meeting,” said municipal commissioner Vikram Kumar.
The delegates will use mainly Senapati Bapat Road, Ganeshkhind Road, Baner Road, Sinhagad Road, Nagar Road and the Pune-Bengaluru bypass as per the tentative programme. They will be visiting civic infrastructure projects, historical locations and other significant places in the city.
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PremiumOfficers of various government departments attended the meeting and the minister raised concern over the traffic chaos. It was noticed that the barricades put up for the metro work were narrowing the roads and leading to traffic chaos. Therefore the administration has already made the agencies not to barricade the stretches where no work is going on and warned of action.
“The guardian minister has urged the administration to talk to agencies implementing the metro rail project and stop the work for a few days during the G20 meet to ensure there is no traffic chaos,” Kumar said.
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde was caught in the traffic chaos when he visited the city.
The corporation has to complete the road repair and beautification work by January 5, Kumar said, adding that the civic administration had also undertaken an anti-encroachment drive to pull down illegal hoardings along the city roads.
The corporation removes around 500 hoardings every day, but unfortunately as many new ones come up every day, the commissioner said.
