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Dapodi is located near the confluence of Pavana and Mula rivers and near the old Pune-Mumbai highway. It was the part of the Pune Municipal Corporation until 1997. Till now, commuters from Dapodi gaothan and nearby areas have to cross the railway gate to reach the highway.

Speaking to TOI, Sunita Kale, a commuter from Sangvi said long queues of vehicles on both sides of the railway gate at Dapodi hinder traffic movement when it is closed for trains to pass. After opening the tracks, the vehicles make a mad rush causing traffic congestion. The situation worsens during the peak morning and evening hours. "The flyover will help de-congest the traffic," she said.

Amit Kamble, a commuter from Pimpale Gurav said the flyover will enable residents of Pimpale Gurav to quickly reach the highway and travel to Pune. Official from the PCMC engineering department said the work of constructing the flyover started in November 2006.

The controversial one-way traffic arrangement from Golibar maidan to Khanya Maruti chowk will also continue for the time being.

These decisions were taken during the traffic mobility committee meeting of the PCB on Tuesday. PCB president Brig R.J. Shamra, deputy commissioner of police (traffic) Manoj Patil, elected members and PCB officers were present at the meeting.

"The move will reduce to the chaos at Ambedkar chowk. It will be on an experimental basis and will be implemented in
the next eight days. Signboards will be placed to make people aware of these changes. People can come forward with their suggestions," DCP Patil said.

Patil told reporters after the meeting that all by-lanes connecting East Street with MG road will be made two-ways for smoother traffic flow. The traffic signal at Ambedkar chowk will be shifted to the next chowk (near Millennium Motors).

MG road will become a totally one-way road once the arrangement comes into place. One will not be able to drive on to the MG road directly from the Ambedkar chowk.

Difficulties faced by the student community because of the one-way arrangement implemented between Golibar maidan and Khanya Maruti chowk was discussed at the meeting, but no decisions taken.

These ventures account for about 40 per cent of projects worth Rs 25,000 crore that have been sanctioned by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), according to data from the National Highway Builders Federation (NHBF), which represents highway construction companies.

The availability of bank finance is critical to such projects because debt typically accounts for 70-75 per cent of a highway project's cost.

The higher interest rates could require infrastructure companies to pay an additional Rs 350 crore (5 per cent of Rs 7,000 crore being the additional interest outgo) as a result.

Banks usually provide loans to highway developers over 12- or 13-year periods that almost cover the concession period of 15 to 20 years. If the debt:equity ratio is 80:20, the company will initially be asked to come up with half the equity portion upfront. Both bank and the company then plough in the remaining amount in equal proportions.

Once the construction of the project is complete, the company will be provided a moratorium of six months to a year on the principal, which means the company is required to pay only the interest. Repayment of the principal and interest kicks in thereafter.

"Banks that have made long-term commitments are finding it difficult to keep them owing to the credit market crisis," admitted Sanjay Sethi, executive-director & head, Infrastructure Group, Kotak Investment Banking.

At the chaotic Nashik Phata chowk, two garbage containers are placed at a blind corner right on the highway proving a major impediment to the speeding traffic and throwing up the possibility of an accident. Scores of officers, employees and corporators of the PCMC pass through this stretch practically everyday, yet none finds it worth complaining to the concerned officials. Similarly at Kundanagar, two garbage containers have been placed on the highway surrounded by mounds of garbage.

At the same Nashik Phata chowk, an open drainage chamber was lying dangerous for more than three months. After Newsline highlighted the point, the PCMC quickly repaired it. But now the concrete broken pieces are lying near the drainage chamber, posing threat to pedestrians. Besides, the chamber has not been aligned to the road surface, thereby creating the possibility of an accident if a speeding two-wheeler rider runs into it. Similarly, the paver blocks near Kasarwadi have sunk tossing the unsuspecting vehicles in the air. "I have seen at least 20 accidents at this spot," says Javed Shaikh, a local shopkeeper.

"It is not as if such companies have defaulted in the past. We feel that a road project is not viable at such high rates. As a result of high cost of funds, borrowers will have to fix higher toll rates to recover money and repay bankers, which may not be easy," MD Mallya, CMD, Bank of Baroda, said.

South-based bank Canara Bank is also going slow on loan commitments to road projects. "Another problem banks face in disbursing long-term loans is that they do not have liabilities of comparable maturity, leading to asset-liability mismatches," said MV Nair, CMD, Union Bank of India.

Given this backdrop, Union Bank of India has suggested to RBI that long-term deposits should not attract cash reserve and statutory liquidity requirements. Also, the government should give tax rebates on long-term bank deposits.

At 730 metre in length, the Chinchwad grade separator is the second longest of the three. It is nine metre wide and includes in its range two chowks -- Mahavir and Shivaji. The Akurdi grade separator is 560 metre in length and nine metre in width. The work on both the grade separators started in March 2006, three months after Pimpri grade separator was thrown open to the public. The Pimpri grade separator which is the longest at 795 metres was constructed at a cost of Rs 18 crore, but has failed to remain motorable.

The construction of both Chinchwad and Akurdi grade separators have generated a lot of heat, especially after their costs jumped astronomically. The Akurdi one was initially set to cost Rs 14 crore, but later the civic adminstration said it would cost Rs 29 crore. Similarly, the Chinchwad grade separator has been constructed at cost of Rs 39 crore. Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh had stalled the construction of the Chinchwad grade separator after Congress leader Srirang Barne raised certain objections. A few months later, Deshmukh lifted the stay after hearing out the civic adminstration.

With the construction of the two grade separators and the one already in place at Pimpri, the time taken to reach Nigdi from Bopodi on the Pune-Mumbai highway will come down drastically. Then municipal commissioner Dilip Band, during whose tenure the Pimpri grade separator was completed and two other grade separator work started, had maintained that it would take eight minutes to travel from Bopodi to Nigdi once grade separator work is completed. After Bopodi, there will be only one major signal -- that is at Nashik Phata chowk. Here too, the PCMC has planned an overbridge which will fly over road, rail and river and is being described as the unique one. Despite its inauguration over four years ago, the bridge work is yet to get cracking.

A last-minute patch-up job is all the roads are getting, instead of the complete makeover that was originally planned. The patch-up, which is nearly complete, aims only to make the roads usable. The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has suspended construction work and is now beautifying the roads.

Nearly 80 per cent of the foreign participants will travel directly from Mumbai to the sports village, organising committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi said. Another official said 25 buses would ferry 2,000 participants from the Mumbai international airport to the sports village. The rest, along with Indian participants, delegates and guests, will use the special route after landing at the Pune airport.

Civic activist Vivek Velankar is aghast, given what citizens had gone through. "After the civic administration made citizens suffer for the roadwork, the foreign participants are taking the expressway. What was the rush all about?" he said. He pointed out that crores had been spent on the roadwork and questioned its quality.

In a city plagued by frequent jams, traffic managers need not long farther than Solapur for inspiration. A one-way system on Solapur Road, which is in the Pune Cantonment Board (PCB) area, has worked wonders in decongesting traffic.

With 20 days to go for the Commonwealth Youth Games (CYG), traffic is more chaotic than ever. Civic activists say the solution to the traffic problems in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) area could lie in replicating the Solapur one-way system, instead of building expensive and time-consuming flyovers.

Jams on the stretch from Golibar Maidan to Pulgate started to ease after it was converted recently into a one-way zone. Vehicles from Swargate to Solapur Road now take a left turn from the PCB office and follow a circular route to reach Pulgate or farther ahead.

"There was some opposition from local residents after the stretch was made one-way. But most people now welcome the move. Commuters have also praised the initiative," Deputy Commissioner of Police (traffic) Manoj Patil said.

Civic activist S C N Jatar, a retired major general, said, "Converting two-way roads into one-ways is perhaps the easiest and the easiest way of tackle the chaotic traffic. Though the PMC undertook such measures on some roads in the past, it is not considering this option any longer, as it should. In fact, instead of building expensive roads and flyovers, it should first try this method at bottlenecks."

PMC additional engineer (projects) Srinivas Bonala said, "Such initiatives need to come from the traffic police, as it is their prerogative. As a civic body, we can support these decisions and facilitate its implementation."

The DCP (traffic) said the traffic police would continue to take such measures. "We have been holding talks with the authorities of the PMC and the PCB." Bonala said the PMC is holding talks with the traffic police on traffic problems at places such as Sangam Bridge, Dengle Bridge and Fergusson College Road.

Stressing that one-way roads are an excellent solutions to the disorderly traffic, activist Vijay Kumbhar said, "More than the civic bodies or police department, such measures should be supported by citizens. Many times, such positive moves are shelved following pressure from local politicians and organisations."

The data revealed stunning information -- 1,351 road accidents from January till July this year; an average of around six mishaps every day; 284 died while 366 were critically injured.

The new road will be 45 metre wide and will also have lanes for running the bus rapid transit system, civic officials told TOI. The road will start from the Bhakti-Shakti garden along the Mumbai-Pune highway in Nigdi. Parts of the proposed road will run parallel to the railway line to
reach Kivale junction, the starting point of the expressway.

The videos were shot but it made no difference. Under Tuesday's battering, most roads were flooded as usual and citizens had to wade through knee-deep water.

Yet, civic officials claim the exercise had proved useful in easing the waterlogging problem. Tuesday's circumstances, they say, were exceptional: the rain was too heavy and uncommon at this time of the year.

In June, Municipal Commissioner Praveensinh Pardeshi had directed all 14 ward offices to capture on camera potholes and waterlogged spots immediately after the first showers, so that the problem areas could be identified for corrective measures. Ward offices hired videographers.

In just three hours -- from 5.30 pm to 8.30 pm -- the city recorded a whopping 54.7 mm of rainfall. This was the equivalent of half the total rainfall the city received in August.

People wade through Ambedkar road near the district collectorate on Tuesday

Overall, 61.7 mm rain was recorded in the 12 hours from 8.30 am to 8.30 pm on Tuesday.

The downpour exposed the woeful drainage system along the city roads. Choked drains resulted in waterlogging up to knee-deep level in several localities. The resultant chaos saw motorists struggling through waterlogged roads and connecting bylanes. Traffic jams followed.

In many areas, bumper-tobumper traffic brought misery to the peak-hour office crowd that was finding its way home. It took an hour-and-a-half to two hours for people to cover distances that normally take a little over 30 minutes.

Among the worst-hit areas were Pune Camp, Baner road, Raja Bahadur Mills road, Bund Garden road, Karve road, Kothrud, the peth areas, Laxmi road and Bajirao road besides parts of Pune-Ahmednagar road and Yerawada. The ongoing road works in areas such as Baner compounded the problems.

"The Union government has approved the revised estimation proposal of the PMC with additional funds of Rs 511 crore," Mayor Rajlaxmi Bhosale told The Indian Express from Delhi.

The additional funds include Rs 269 crore for the first phase of the BRTS, Rs 40 crore for the BRTS pilot project and Rs 37 crore for the development of Alandi Road.

The civic body was facing a shortage of funds to carry on the development work, the mayor said adding that the Union government's decision would help speed up the work. The PMC had justified the increase in project cost, saying the provisions of laying service lines, developing tracks for cycle and pedestrians were not considered in the earlier plan. The project cost had increased from Rs 800 crore to Rs 1,300 crore.

Incessant rains for the past four days have damaged roads in the township and pot-holes have developed at many places. The debris of ongoing roadworks is also hindering smooth movement of vehicles on many roads. These are resulting in traffic snarls and accidents.

Sharma admitted that some roads have been damaged due to the rains. He said tenders would be invited to repair them. But the work can start only after the rains stop.

Meanwhile, independent corporator Maruti Bhapkar wrote a letter to Sharma about the bad condition of roads. He said, "the PCMC has appointed a French company, SGS, to test the quality of materials used in road work. The officials claim that quality roads are being laid after the SGS analysis of materials. But the rains have exposed the fallacy of the claim."

Saying that the PCMC would receive grants under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission in the next five years, Bhapkar demanded formation of a committee under retired judge to ensure quality road work.

This was announced by Anil Deshmukh, state public works department (PWD) minister, while inaugurating the Ravet-Punawale bridge on Pavana river, built jointly by the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) and the MSRDC on Friday. He also inaugurated municipal school buildings at both Ravet and Punawale villages.

"When the expressway was first built, there was much less traffic. Now, however, the traffic has increased and so have the accidents. The two main causes for accidents are drunken driving and overspeeding," said Deshmukh. He said that the staff deployed on the expressway would be equipped with breath analysers. The police would take action against those found driving under the influence. He also said that radar guns would be deployed to check overspeeding vehicles.