Pune : Civic Activists and Residents File PIL in Bombay High Court Over Closure of Wakad Balewadi Road

The neighbourhoods of Baner and Balewadi in Pune Municipal Corporation are separated from neighbourhoods of Wakad, Kaspate Vasti, etc in Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation by Mula River. 

Since the past 2 decades both the neighbourhoods have grown exponentially in population, construction, and commercial development. Many people reside in Wakad and work in Baner, Balewadi & Vice-versa and are now dependent only on a very long and far away route which makes them pass through Mumbai-Bangalore Highway. 

A bridge over the Mula river connecting the Balewadi, Baner and Wakad was sanctioned jointly by the PMC & PCMC in 2013. 

THE BRIDGE WITHOUT ANY CONNECTIVITY! 

The said Bridge is constructed with a long delay and ready in the year 2018-19 with an estimated expenditure of over 31 Crores INR. However, the bridge has not yet been put to public use till date. The Balewadi side of the Bridge does not have connectivity to existing roads. The issue is affecting over 250,000 residents of the region and residents of the Pune district. It is also unnecessarily increasing the load on the Mumbai-Bangalore Highway, putting the lives of travellers at risk, heavy wastage of time and fuel. 

The Petitioners challenge the complete inaction on part of the PMC and other respondents. 

FOLLOWING IS THE TIMELINE OF THE PROJECT NO DATE EVENT

1. 09.01.2013 Project of the Bridge was approved by technical committee resolution no 118. 

2. 2010-2023 The Population in the neighborhoods exponentially increases to over 250,000 residents due to rapid urbanization. 

3. 2005-2023 Rapid growth of IT sector in neighboring Hinjawadi IT park housing over 2000 companies employing over 10 Lakh individuals, adjacent to neighborhoods of Wakad & Balewadi. 

4. 2018-19 Construction of the said bridge is complete after a long delay. 

5. 2019 onwards The bridge remains un-utilized since 2019 due to no connectivity from Balewadi side. 

INACTION ON PART OF PMC : 

The PMC has failed in their fundamental duty to do the needful for making the already constructed bridge open for public use, leading to waste of public funds, waste of time and fuel of the common public. The connectivity from the PCMC side is ready. 

The PMC has orally cited difficulty in acquiring the land necessary for constructing a connecting road to the bridge. The PMC have the Authority to forcefully acquire the land for public purposes under various laws.

CITIZENS TAKE THE INITIATIVE TO FILE A PIL 

Abhijit Garad, a resident of Wakad and Sandip Mandloi a resident of Balewadi have taken the initiative to contact the authorities since a long time but there is no concrete response or solution in sight. 

Therefore, they have now filed a Public Interest Litigation at Bombay High court through Adv Satya Muley, against 1) PMC 2) PCMC 3) District Collector 4) Town Planning Authority 5) Urban Development department. The PIL seeks direction from the Hon’ble Bombay High Court for doing all that is necessary to open the Wakad-Balewadi Bridge for public use. 

Abhijit Garad stays at Wakad and works at Balewadi and several thousand such people travel from Wakad, Kaspate Wasti to Balewadi and vice versa for work or other purposes. They are forced to spend an extra 40 minutes to an hour and excess fuel for taking a long journey from Mumbai Bangalore Highway. Had the Bridge been functional over 250,000 residents of the regions would not have faced daily hardships. 

FALSE COMMITMENTS AND WASTAGE OF PUBLIC FUNDS

The said bridge was to be constructed by joint participation of PMC and PCMC. The construction began in 2013 with a budget of over 31 Crores INR and concluded in 2018-19 after a long delay. Cost of the project is being shared 50% by each corporation. 

While the public money has already been spent, the bridge is of no use since over 5 years after it was fully constructed. Every time the local residents raise the issue with the authorities they receive only false commitments and information that all approvals are now in place and the connecting road will be developed soon. However, Sandeep Mandloi who stays at Balewadi says that has seen such false promises and news reports since the past almost 6 to 8 years without any real development. Thus, the public money is going to waste. 

A BRIDGE USED FOR GARBAGE DUMPING/PARKING/ALCOHOLICS : 

Due to the non-availability of the said bridge for public use, the space on and around the newly constructed bridge is being used by miscreants, garbage dumping, unauthorized Truck/Tanker parking and alcoholics for antisocial activities. The funds used for construction of the said bridge are going to waste. 

TRAFFIC JAMS IN BALEWADI/BANER/WAKAD : 

The situation is worsening for the residents of the area by everyday passing as the traffic is increasing, there are huge bottlenecks on roads and the opening of the said bridge is bound to solve a lot of traffic jams in the region, shorten travel time and save precious fuel and time. Although there has been rapid urbanization in the region of Balewadi, Baner and Wakad, the residents of the densely populated region are forced to remain dependent on alternative unviable 2 options. 

One option being the heavily used Mumbai Bangalore Highway. There is only 1 access to the said highway from the side of Balewadi and Baner AT Radha Chowk, which is most of the time congested and forces the people to travel an excess distance of over 5 to 6 kilometers. And due to traffic congestion, several times the extra travel time consumed is over 40 minutes to 1 hour leading to waste of precious fuel and time of the affected population. A huge population stays in Wakad and works in Balewadi, Baner region and vice versa. The other option available to the population is again from a completely another neighborhood on the far eastern side from Vishal Nagar. 

“The perpetual delay in bringing the bridge in use adds to the commute woes to thousands of citizens staying in Wakad, Kaspate Wasti, and Pimple Saudagar area. Citizens have to take other longest routes to commute to offices at Balewadi and Baner areas even though the approach road to the bridge from PCMC side has been ready for many years. This not only adds fuel cost to take alternate overburdened routes of Bombay-Bengaluru highway and/or Jupiter Hospital but also increases commute time. In this case, every time there is a promise to bring the bridge into use, the promise itself gets renewed every 6 months. We don’t see your action on the ground,” said Abhijit Garad, a Resident of Wakad.

“Residents of Baner and Balewadi are facing daily traffic chaos and at times it takes 30-40 mins to cross a single junction. Radha Chowk, Mamta Chowk and Dasra chowk become bottlenecks. Balewadi Wakad link road has been proposed for more than 10 years, however there is no outcome till now. Bridge work from Wakad over Mula river was already completed a few years ago by spending 31 crores however the rest of the road is still not completed and all the housing societies face major problems as the connecting road from Balewadi side is not motorable. The situation in Monsoon is even more horrible. We have approached PMC and local leaders’ multiple times and we only got assurances but nothing happened. This Balewadi Wakad road connectivity needs immediate attention of civic bodies to ease traffic congestion in Balewadi,” informed Sandeep Mandloi, a Resident of Balewadi. 

Advocate Satya Muley, on behalf of the Petitioners, stated “The technical committee resolution was passed in 2013. After a very slow pace and huge delay the bridge was finally constructed and ready by 2018-19. If there is a problem in acquiring the land from Balewadi side for giving connectivity to the bridge, then this exposes the flaws in PMC’s planning and administration. It is astonishing to see that both the corporations built the bridge without proceeding to acquire and for the bridge’s connectivity. Since 6 to 8 years the authorities and politicians have given statements that the land acquisition problem has been solved and the connecting road from Balewadi shall be developed soon to make the WakadBalewadi bridge operational. However, there is no real development on the site. If the problem is really solved, then let the authorities show the development in the next 2 to 3 months, and file an affidavit supporting their claims in the Bombay High Court. Now the time has come for the authorities and the politicians to walk the talk! “

The petition was filed on September 8,2023.