Widening of Pune-Nashik highway stares at delay

PUNE: The widening of the 35 km stretch from Nashik Phata to Rajgurunagar on National Highway (NH) 50 will be delayed by at least six months, much to the dismay of regular commuters.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will prepare a revised detailed project report (DPR) on the basis of recommendations made by the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) last month.“The PCMC authorities have told us to include the Metro line in the DPR. The revised DPR will be submitted to the authorities in the next few days,” Suhas Chitnis, the project director at NHAI, said.

The NHAI had floated a tender of Rs950 crore based on the old DPR, but it had to be scrapped. “The PCMC authorities have told us they have acquired 60% land so far, but we have not got the actual possession. If we do not get the land in time, the project will be delayed further. The cost of the work will also escalate,” a senior NHAI official said. “As significant time is required to float a fresh tender, complete land acquisition, administrative procedure and award work to an agency, the beginning of the actual work may get delayed by at least six months,” the official added.
The PCMC commissioner Shravan Hardikar said they had initiated the land acquisition process. “Our aim is to have a proper DPR which will accommodate future infrastructure projects,” Hardikar said.
The stretch is narrow and does not have adequate infrastructure. As a result, fatal and non-fatal accidents occur. According to the Chakan police station, over 50 accidents including fatal occur on the stretch from Moshi to Rajgurunagar every year. “Unless the authorities improve the traffic infrastructure, curbing accidents is not possible,” a senior officer from the Chakan police said.
The Federation of Chakan Industry (FCI) has requested NHAI to carry out some works. “The vehicle queues and traffic congestion at each junction has made life miserable. Many industry buses get stuck in the traffic and the companies fail to start work on time.” Dilip Batwal, the secretary of FCI, said.