Slow and unsteady

PMC promises to finish work on drains by end of month, but makes sluggish progress on desilting, cleaning

Slow and unsteady

PMC promises to finish work on drains by end of month, but makes sluggish progress on desilting, cleaning
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IN the fifth instalment of the pre-monsoon audit, MiD DAY takes stock of two of the busiest roads in the city, namely Laxmi Road and Shankarsheth Road.

Bumper-to-bumper traffic is not uncommon here, not to mention the innumerable shops, hotels and small tea stalls that dot them.

Places on Shankarshet Road in Swargate have been dug up by the Maharashtra State Electricity Board for the laying of cables
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Besides, during monsoons, drainage lines frequently get clogged owing to the garbage and tobacco packets that are indiscriminately tossed into the drains, obstructing smooth flow of rainwater.
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Though the civic body has set a completion date of May 31 for itself, the work of cleaning and desilting the drainage lines on the roads here is yet to take off on a pressing scale.

Laxmi Road
MiD DAY surveyed Laxmi Road and the adjoining Kumthekar and Kelkar road areas and found that not only were the gutters filled with muck, but also kitchen wastes were being dumped by hoteliers and hawkers.

"Instead of using the garbage bin, many carts selling fast food had thrown the waste in the nearby gutters.
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The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has not taken any action against such shop owners who use gutters and storm water drains as garbage bins.

Sunil Kesari, ward officer, Vishrambaug, said that the work had picked up momentum as per the instructions given by the PMC Commissioner Mahesh Pathak.
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"Ours is a vast area and we have to clean up all the 3,500 drainage lines. The work is meticulous and time-consuming.

These gutters and the connecting storm water drains flow into the river. Our workers are cleaning the storm water line as a top priority," he said. "We shall have cleaned all the storm water drains by the end of this month."
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Shankarsheth road:
MID DAY surveyed the entire tract extending to 3km, which comes under the jurisdiction of the PMC and the Pune Cantonment Board (PCB) as well. Works undertaken by both the PMC and the PCB are yet to be completed.

The drainage on Laxmi Road is choked with garbage and plastic waste

At the Swargate Junction, where the Shankarsheth Road begins, all the 15 storm water chambers are filled with garbage, waste papers, tobacco and Gutkha packets and plastic glasses and bottles.

The roads may be clean and pothole free, but the same cannot be said of the storm water drains.
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"The sweepers take the easy way out by sweeping the garbage into the drains instead of disposing it elsewhere," said Rahul Kulkarni, a resident in the area. "There might be tones of garbage inside the
drainage line."

Kulkarni said some areas on the road had been dug up by the Maharashtra State Electricity Board for laying of cables and left incomplete and this could cause serious accidents during the rains, said Kulkarni.

Vivek Kharwadkar, additional city engineer (Road), PMC, who is coordinating the entire storm water drain work, said that cleaning and repairing of the road was topmost on the agenda. "Who dug up the roads is not a issue now. Our aim is to make the road motorable during the monsoon and this shall be done before May 31," he said.

Voices
You can't expect much from the PMC. They have started this work ages ago, and yet have been unsuccessful in completing it.
Anindita Nandi (22), student

It's the same situation every time. All we can hope is that they finish in time, before the monsoon arrives, otherwise the open drains will cause havoc.
Poonam Nanaware (23), student

The condition of the road and drains is truly bad. They better hurry up and progress faster with the work before the rains make their way.
Subodh Patil (27), sportsperson

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