Tree trimming disrupts traffic during wee hrs in Pune

Vehicular traffic in Kasba and Somwar Peths was affected during the peak hours on Friday morning as the road from Shaniwarwada to Kamala Nehru Hospital was closed to facilitate trimming of a tree at Sattoti police chowky.

The road, which is narrow but still sought-after by vehicles for being a shortcut, remained choke-a-block. It was closed from both the sides and neither the traffic police nor the PMC bothered to divert traffic to other routes. 

The bottleneck prevailed for almost an hour. Mrudula Shinde (45), a resident of Kasba Peth, who had asked for trimming of the tree, said, “We stay in an old wada and the branches were reaching our house. The tree had tilted and could have got uprooted damaging our house. Therefore, we sought permission to trim the tree on October 23 last year. Though the application remained pending, the garden department trimmed the tree today.”

The PMC’s garden department superintendent Ashok Ghorpade said, “There are two wadas in the area. We inspected the spot and found the tree hazardous. So we trimmed it.”