Pune-Solapur road claims another victim

Pune-Solapur road claims another victim
ANURADHA MASCARENHAS

Pune, June 8: Life comes cheap on this road. Thirty-six year old Khozem Tinwala has become yet another statistic as the Pune-Solapur Road claimed the latest victim on the killer stretch which saw 25 fatal accidents last year.

The agonising death may have prompted the civic authorities to raze the obstructing boundary wall near Fatimanagar (the accident site) but it also highlights the pathetic condition of the highway where only 60 per cent of the land acquisition process has been completed to widen the road.

A grieving Saifee Tinwala -- his brother Khozem came under the rear wheel of Pune Municipal Corporation's dumper placer at the junction near Fatimanagar -- pointed out that there was not a single divider on the road right from Bhairoba Nullah till the railway bridge.

The road narrows dangerously towards the Fatimanagar junction and broadens drastically towards the Army Sports Physical Training (ASPT)-end with the effect that two-wheelers, four-wheelers and heavy vehicles overtake each other at breakneck speed. Khozem who was turning towards Fatimanagar was apparently hit by the dumper and his head was crushed by its rear wheel. His five-year old daughter Zeenat had a narrow escape.

While Deputy City Engineer (Vehicle Depot) Kishore Pol gave a clean chit to the driver Mahadev More, the official has, however, mentioned in his report to the police that the narrow road, heavy density of vehicles and temporary cones placed on the road by the traffic police obstructed the smooth movement of vehicles.

Chairman of the city improvement committee Prakash Mantri, who is also the corporator of Ward number 18 and has long since pressed for the installation of dividers on the stretch from Bhairoba Nullah till Mundhwa, pointed out the alleged folly of the electrical department of the PMC who only recently had erected electricity poles on the stretch, but would now have to remove them as part of road widening. Mantri protested against the unnecessary expenditure on the laying of underground cables when the same work would have to be redone.

Over 30-odd stalls from Bhairoba Nullah-end till the Christian cemetery have to be relocated. Only the corporation has no inkling as to where they could be shifted since a majority of the portion belongs the cemetery. The Public Works Department (PWD) has handed over the maintenance of the road to the PMC in 1997 and the acquisition of properties to widen the stretch is underway, Manohar Bhate, Officer on Special Duty (Roads) PMC said.

Even as the PMC's traffic department has sprung to action and will soon start excavation to lay the dividers, it will be a long time before five-year old Zeenat can come out of the trauma of seeing her father die and wife Shama can come to terms with with her husband's death.