Heavy rains catch Puneites on wrong foot

The sudden downpour on Wednesday evening in the city threw traffic out of gear. With several roads in the city waterlogged, vehicles moved at snail's pace and serpentine queues of vehicles were seen on the roads.

In some areas, vehicles were stranded. Commuters faced traffic congestion on Fergusson College (FC) Road, Jungli Maharaj Road and Karve Road.

Several spots in Pune Camp and parts of Centre Street, Mahatma Gandhi Road, East Street, Shivaji Market, Bootee Street and Modikhana, besides the Pune police commissionerate, directorate of women and child welfare and the doctors' quarters of Sassoon Hospital were waterlogged.

What compounded the woes of the commuters was that the traffic signals at many spots stopped functioning.

Similarly, the stretch between the petrol pump near the Regional Transport Office (RTO) and the Criminal Investigation Department office was congested and vehicles were stranded for more than 45 minutes.

A college student, Praveen Kumar, of Wadia College vent his frustration at the traffic jam on the RTO Road. "I am very disappointed with the traffic management by the city police. They should have deployed more traffic policemen on the road when it was raining,'' he said.

Traffic jam was reported at the Agriculture College Chowk, where vehicles moving towards Sakhar Sankul created chaos at the junction.

A commuter, Shripad Lonari, said, "It is very bad as every time, the rain affects the traffic in the city. It takes 45 minutes to reach the chowk from Pune Camp. The traffic police are not doing their job sincerely and it affects our life without any reason,'' he said.

According to traffic police inspector Vijaykumar Palsule, although there were traffic jams in some parts of the city, the police cleared the jams within a short time.

"Traffic chaos near the RTO took place due to the waterlogging under the railway bridge. We have deployed more policemen and officers on the road and problem would be solved. Traffic congestion at the Agriculture College Chowk was due to the construction work on the Range Hills Road for the last couple of days,'' he said.