Pune: Lakhs of residents in Dhayari area are witnessing frequent accidents on the three-kilometre long stretch from Dhayari phata to the last bus stop of Dhayari - the most densely populated area - due to faulty installation of road dividers.
This 3-kilometre stretch has about 70 bylanes. The main road itself is narrow and the bylanes too. Several townships have come up in this area in the last few years, which has added more vehicles on the already narrow stretch. The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) had recently proposed to widen the stretch but it is yet to acquire private properties along the road. Meanwhile, some big trees were felled and footpaths were constructed. As a result, the road has widened at certain places but narrowed down at other places. The dividers which have been installed are also wrongly placed. Motorists find it difficult to spot the divider while driving on the road. There are no reflectors installed to alert the drivers and the navy blue colour painted has near-zero visibility during night hours. Accidents are frequently happening on this stretch but the PMC has been ignoring it for a while.
Mahesh Pokale, a local leader from Shiv Sena said, "So far, five to six major accidents have happened at this stretch. The common citizens have to bear the losses due to damage to their vehicles. The road dividers are wrongly placed and are absolutely unnecessary. But the PMC has wasted lakhs of rupees on this project. We have complained numerous times to the concerned officials, but no corrective action has been taken so far. These dividers are posing a danger to the life of citizens and hence FIR must be registered against the contractor and municipal officers for their negligence."
Vitthal Ingawale, Deputy Engineer of PMC said, "The local citizens had demanded to install these dividers. There are a large number of bylanes on this stretch. We had also installed reflectors on these dividers but they have either fallen off or been removed by someone. We will soon paint the divider barricades with some other colour so that it will be visible for motorists and commuters."
