Pune: Following the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) Heritage Department’s refusal to remove Grade-I structure in Wakdewadi area which is obstructing traffic on Mumbai-Pune highway at Patil Estate slums, there seems to be no solution to the frequent traffic jams. The traffic congestion in this area has continued despite construction of flyover. 

It may be recalled that to solve long pending issue of traffic jams near CoEP (College of Engineering, Pune), the PMC constructed a flyover by spending Rs 68 crore. It was opened to the public last year. This flyover was part of  flyovers spanning from Sangam Bridge, CoEP Chowk and Mumbai-Pune highway, Sangamwadi Bridge, Sancheti Chowk, Shimla Office Chowk and JM Road. The construction work for the same had started in December 2012. 

However, despite construction of this flyover, traffic congestion still remains a problem. Class-I heritage structure of Water Tower is located near the landing of Mumbai-Pune Highway near Patil Estate slum. Due to this structure, the traffic flow is getting obstructed.  

Manoj Joshi, a daily commuter, said, “The tower obstructs the flyover which starts a few metres away. During the evening hours, the heavy vehicles use this route to go to Nagar Road and then we witness traffic jams every single day.”

Aniruddha Pawaskar, Additional Chief Superintendent of Road Department said, “I have to check status of traffic problem in that particular patch.”

Harshada Shinde, Head of Heritage Department of PMC said, “It is Class-I heritage structure and we cannot remove it. So, we have to find another way to clear the traffic congestion.”

Senior Police Inspector (Traffic planning) Vivekanand Wakhare told Sakal Times, “There has to be another solution for the traffic problem there. We need to preserve the heritage structure.”