Pune: Vehicles, vendors spark congestion in Kharadi

PUNE: Eateries, unauthorized vendors and illegal parking have become the bane of residents of Kharadi.
Many said customers of these eateries and hawkers park their vehicles on the road and spark traffic congestion, especially during the peak hours. According to the residents of the area, some hawkers set up shop on the road, and people buying their wares park nearby, eating into the carriageway.
Some said the issue of illegal parking, especially in some of the narrower bylanes, has led to fisticuffs on multiple occasions.
One resident said they’ve been seeking a solution from the authorities for months. “For the past year, we have been raising this issue several authorities in a bid to resolve it, but the problem continues to worsen,” Deepak Patil, founding-chairman of the Kharadi Housing Societies Welfare Association, told TOI.
The problem, Patil said, was more prevalent in areas located near Waah Indore shop and Sweets India on D P Farms Road, near City Vista building on Fountain Road and opposite EON IT Park Phase II on Grant Road.
Residents said they raised this issue with the traffic department and submitted an application to the Pune Municipal Corporation. “We have to drive on these roads daily, and each day, the carriageway becomes narrower. Two-wheelers and cabs are parked haphazardly,” Kruthi Nahata, a resident of Rakshak Society, said.
“While illegal parking is a problem on Grant Road, there are people who have the audacity to even ride on the wrong side, posing a major risk to everyone’s lives. This is a bigger problem,” Rakesh Kumar, another resident, said.
Some residents have taken to social media, beseeching the authorities to fix this mess. “Kindly help. This is at the turn of the main road and is becoming crowded day by day due to people parking their vehicles to smoke and loiter. This is risky for motorists, as there are shops at the bend. People also face problems walking on the footpath,” Nikhil Shah, who goes by the Twitter handle @nikhilshah2189, wrote on the microblogging platform.
PMC ward officer Rajesh Bankar said the traffic police will have to deal with the illegally parked vehicles, but acknowledged that illegal hawking was definitely an issue. “We carry regular drives and take action against such hawkers. Some hawkers stand in the margins of buildings; we don’t have the authority to take action, as they are technically encroaching upon the building’s premises,” Bankar said.