Traffic dept turns its attention to Peth areas
The Times of India: If the traffic police department and the Pune Municipal Corporation have their way, some of the busy city roads passing through the central Peth areas could soon have a “congestion charge”, which would help in reducing vehicular traffic in these areas.
Besides the proposed congestion charge, the traffic department has also expressed the need for a ban on entry of four-wheelers and two-wheelers on some of the busy roads and bylanes, so that some of them can be turned into walking plazas. Similarly, parking charges on the roads would be much higher than charges at the existing parking lots in the area.
The proposals for these changes have come from the traffic department, which has come out with a report on the traffic problems affecting the Peth areas. It has urged the municipal corporation to implement them. Last week, deputy commissioner of police (traffic) Manoj Patil discussed the fine points of the report with municipal commissioner Mahesh Zagade.
Elaborating on the traffic problems, Patil pointed out that the Peth areas Budhwar, Shukrawar, Shaniwar, Narayan and Sadashiv are market places where commercial activity has been centralised. The roads, lanes and bylanes in these areas had been planned more than 300 years ago as per the then prevailing needs and modes of transport. The same roads are more or less being used for the city which has now a population of 50 lakh and has 25 lakh vehicles. This has resulted in two basic and severe problems inadequate parking space and traffic passing through these roads.
The report points out that although revisions were made in development control rules by the PMC from time to time, the rules did not help in changing the situation as the maximum development potential of the area had already been achieved. The parking spaces in the area proved to be woefully inadequate, resulting in a situation where the roads were being used to park vehicles. This has eaten into the carriage width of the road. People who visit the city, not just from within the country, but also from abroad, take back a bad impression about the city, which is not good, the report points out.
Mentioning the joint efforts taken by the PMC and the traffic department in solving the traffic problems faced in the central areas, the report, based on an elaborate study, has focussed on how parking facilities can be improved, and how other modern methods can be employed to ease traffic.
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