Ramwadi underpass repairs come unstuck, road surface on slippery slope

PUNE: The Ramwadi underpass, meant to be an express link to the airport, is full of roadblocks even before the monsoon approaches, with broken repairs, a leaking roof, and sewage in the water channels.
The project was 10 years in the planning and construction and is still incomplete. Users of the underpass said there are flaws in the construction.
Covers on a dedicated water channel across the carriageway have been replaced twice, and even the replaced covers have been damaged.The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) said it was due to “vehicles speeding down the slope”.
The first covers were made of cement concrete, while the replaced ones were of structured steel. The concrete covers were displaced from their original laid-out position, and the replaced structured steel covers caved in, lowering the channel from the carriageway level.
According to locals it causes regular accidents and traffic snarls at the entrance from the Kalyaninagar end.
“We had replaced those covers, from concrete to structured steel, but we did not get enough time to make them sturdy. The cars enter the underpass fast from the Kalyaninagar end, which is helped by the slope. So they force of the tyres often causes that steel to bend downwards. We are replacing those covers once again, but this time, we are making the structure stronger,” a PMC project department engineer said.
Even the ceiling concrete blocks have started leaking, say the locals, and thus the surface is always wet, making matters dangerous for motorists, because they also have to negotiate a sharp turn.
“What I have gathered from the ward office is that the contractors did not place the concrete blocks on the ceiling properly and hence it is always dripping water,” Qaneez Sukhrani, the convenor of the Vimannagar Citizens’ Forum, said. She has now petitioned the PMC, the state government, and the Union government for an audit of the project.
Moreover, water from unknown sources enters the channels, often overflowing and flooding parts of the underpass. Locals from Siddharth Nagar slums have used the water to wash clothes and utensils. The PMC tested samples of this water recently and the report said the water “is not potable”.
“There is a lot of sludge in that channel, and coliform counts are way above what can be considered potable, so it is clearly sewage. We think that the sewage is from the slums as they do not have a drainage system,” a PMC water department official said.