Kamal Ghorui
Pune: The civic administration has decided to widen a long-pending stretch of the main Aundh Road, ahead of Bremen Chowk and towards the Rajiv Gandhi bridge, in a bid to remove the bottleneck faced by vehicles due to narrow carriageway width. The three heritage structures located along this stretch will now be shifted to other locations to pave the way for the widening.Regular commuters on this route said the widening has been long-pending and should be finished in the next few months.Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) sources said that while other parts of this road have been widened, only a portion from the MSRTC bus stop towards Bhimsen Joshi auditorium and Rajiv Gandhi bridge is pending for widening, mainly because of the presence of the British-era heritage structures. Now, a plan for dismantling these structures has been discussed.PMC has floated tenders for road widening and the dismantling of heritage structures. Stone and wooden material used to make these structures has been numbered to help in reconstruction. A civic official chose anonymity and said, “In the first phase, there is a plan to dismantle the structures properly as per markings done on stones. The civic administration will seek guidance from experts for dismantling to avoid damage to the construction materials. The plan to reconstruct them will be taken up in the second phase. It is being considered within the premises of the police housing area in Aundh.”Once the structures are removed, the road will become 36m-wide, according to PMC, and will reduce bunching of vehicles as an additional lane will be added to the stretch.Push for widening rail underpasses in KhadkiThe widening of two rail underpasses in Khadki is expected to get a push as PMC’s standing committee has approved appointment of a consultant for the project. The proposal has been under consideration for the last two years. A series of meetings between PMC, Khadki Cantonment Board (KCB) and the rail administration were conducted to push the proposal ahead. The existing underpasses are proving inadequate to handle the daily flow of vehicles due to their narrow carriageway widths.
