Despite being completed about four years ago, the Pimple Nilakh-Baner Bridge over the Mula river is yet to be opened to the public, because there is no connecting road at one end.
Despite being completed about four years ago, the Pimple Nilakh-Baner Bridge over the Mula river is yet to be opened to the public, because there is no connecting road at one end.
The project was undertaken jointly by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC). About Rs5.25 crore was spent to build the 160-metre-long, 20-metre-wide bridge.
“The construction of the overbridge was completed on September 20, 2007. But the bridge could not be opened to the public because the PMC failed to acquire the land at one end of the bridge,” claimed PCMC officials.
According to officials the acquisition of the land was imperative for the construction of a road connecting the overbridge. Once inaugurated, the overbridge would link Pimple Nilakh, Kalewadi, Rahatni, Jagtap Dairy and Baner-Balewadi routes.
A demand by the residents to open the overbridge for public has been long-pending. The PCMC engineering department co-ordinator, Dilip Kudale, told DNA, “As it was a joint venture by both the municipal corporations, the PCMC had completed its work on time. It was the failure of the PMC, which has not
followed the deadline for the project.”
In a Right to Information (RTI) inquiry on the status of the overbridge by BJP activist Vishwas Gandhile in 2008, it was revealed that the PMC had failed to acquire the land for developing a road near the project.
Under the RTI Act, 2005, he was informed that the PMC had sent a proposal for land acquisition to the district collectorate office on June 8, 2006. “If the PMC still neglects the land acquisition for the road development, it would complicate matters. Encroachments have already started taking place near the project,” PCMC
officials claimed.
The Pimple Nilakh-Baner overbridge proposal was sanctioned during the tenure of former PCMC commissioner Anil Diggikar in 2003. Local activists made efforts to ensure that the overbridge was opened before the Commonwealth Youth Games in 2008, but in vain.
There are nearly 2,000 commuters from various parts of the city like Baner, Pashan, Pune and Aundh who come to the Pimpri-Chinchwad area for work every day. They could save a lot of time if the bridge was opened to traffic.
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