Pending work holds up opening of subway

PMC awaits permission to dig road for laying of pipeline at Viman Nagar junction

PMC awaits permission to dig road for laying of pipeline at Viman Nagar junction

Pedestrians will have to wait longer before they can start using the subways built at the Viman Nagar junction by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).

The civic body is now awaiting permission from the traffic police to allow them to dig a part of the road so that they can complete the laying of a water pipeline.

MiD DAY had reported on March 1 (Pipeline block for Viman Nagar subway) that the subway built at the Viman Nagar junction by the PMC, construction of which was over last year itself, has still been closed because of a water pipeline that was passing below structure. A new parallel pipeline was then built to divert the water supply from the old one. However, after the pipeline was laid a few days ago, all that was remaining was the joining of the two conduits to divert water to the new one. The laying of the connector requires digging work for which traffic officials are still to issue a written authorisation.

Executive Engineer Nandakishore Kishore from the PMC said that they had been requesting the traffic officials for the past 15 days to allow them to begin work but to no avail. "The contractor, Patel Engineering, is also facing a shortage of plumbing-related spare parts that are required to join the two pipelines. This is also one of the reasons why the opening has been delayed and the subways cannot be open for public use."

When MiD DAY contacted Police Inspector SS Shinde from the Yerawada Traffic Division, he denied any PMC officials had approached him for permission to carry out digging work. "Why would I refuse them a go-ahead if they approached me for permission?"u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0

Built and funded under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, the PMC started building subways at the Wakefield Chowk, Viman Nagar Chowk and the Chandan Nagar Chowk two years ago. While the work at Chandan Nagar and Wakefield is still underway, the subway at Viman Nagar is complete. Total cost of the project is Rs 661 lakh.u00a0

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