PWD all set to widen clogged Ahmednagar highway stretch

PUNE: There’s some relief in sight for commuters hassled by daily traffic snarls on the Pune-Wagholi-Shirur stretch of the Ahmednagar highway.
The state Public Works Department (PWD) has initiated steps to widen a 24.7km stretch of the road from Wagholi — outside civic limits) to a little beyond Shikrapur.

On the identified stretch, the highway will be converted to a six-lane thoroughfare, an upgrade to the existing four-lane facility.PWD has floated tenders for the Rs209.4-crore project and expects to appoint an agency in two months.
According to regular commuters who traverse the highway daily from Wagholi to the Ranjangaon industrial area and beyond, to Ahmednagar, the portion in question is beset by traffic congestion.
The project is being planned along the lines of the Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM), in which both the government and implementing agency will make an investment.
Motorists who have for long borne the brunt of unending traffic snarls have been demanding an increase in the highway’s vehicle-carrying capacity.
Barring the Ahmednagar highway, all the other highways passing through the city — Solapur highway, Kolhapur-Bengaluru highway, Nashik highway and Mumbai highway — have been widened.
For most commuters, the travel time is doubled during the rush hour.
Vijay Shetti, who works in a private company near Ranjangaon, said he spends nearly an hour-and-a-half going from Wagholi and Shikrapur. “There is an urgent need to widen the road. We have been hearing about the widening project, but nothing has happened on the ground. There is no traffic regulation, which further adds to the chaos,” Shetti said.
PWD officials said they expect the work to be progress smoothly as the project will not require any land acquisition.
More than one lakh people drive on the highway to Shikrapur every day.
Tejas Shirke, a Wagholi resident, said of the two lanes, the slow lane is used by two-wheelers and local vehicles. “This leaves only one lane for other vehicles. Also, gaps in the median slow down traffic,” Shirke said.