PMC plans to make Pune pothole-free by November, but ongoing road digging for CCTV installation complicates the effort.
About 550 km of city roads will be excavated for CCTV cables, with repair costs entirely on PMC.
Lack of coordination between PMC and police raises concerns about road conditions and traffic management.
Pune, 20 September 2025: Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has set a deadline to make the city’s roads pothole-free by the end of November. Municipal Commissioner Naval Kishore Ram instructed officials to remove all road obstructions and encroachments as part of this effort.
However, at the same time, the police have started a major project to install CCTV across Pune, which involves digging 550 kilometers of roads in the city. The project began in Rajendranagar, Navi Peth. This has raised concerns about how Pune can achieve pothole-free roads while extensive excavation continues.
The CCTV installation project covers Pune city, rural areas, and Pimpri-Chinchwad, with approval from the Home Department. In total, 1,600 kilometers of roads will be dug, of which 550 kilometers are in Pune city. Normally, PMC does not allow road digging during the monsoon, but limited digging of 28 km was permitted this season to start laying CCTV cables.
Once the digging is completed, the responsibility for resurfacing the roads falls entirely on PMC. Private contractors pay a fee for road repair, but in this case, the cost will be borne by the municipal corporation. PMC officials estimate that resurfacing 550 kilometers of roads will cost the city crores of rupees. The corporation has written to the state government requesting funds to cover these expenses.
Commissioner Naval Kishore Ram said, “We are working to make Pune pothole-free by November, but the ongoing CCTV cable work will require proper resurfacing afterward. Since PMC does not have sufficient funds for this, we have requested financial support from the state government.”
With little coordination between PMC and the police, questions remain about whether Pune can become truly pothole-free and how traffic congestion will be managed during this period.
