Pune: Over 50% of 1,820 pedestrians and cyclists interviewed in Pimpri Chinchwad said crossing the road was the most dangerous part of their everyday journey, revealed a survey conducted by the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) and the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP).
The survey was conducted over a period of six months ending early Jan this year, with an intent to understand and analyse the impact of street transformations on the twin cities’ urban infrastructure.
The survey stated that not even one road in the PCMC limits were in accordance to the guidelines of the Indian Road Congress (ICR) and more than 45% of the major roads were encroached upon by illegal vendors and shop extensions.
“We analysed all the road designs as per the available parameters. It was observed that of the 13 roads selected for the survey, barely three-four performed well on different parameters, while issues like footpath encroachments and poor maintenance plagued a majority of these roads,” Pranjal Kulkarni, programme manager at ITDP, told TOI.
The road assessment consisted of three major components — situational and comparative analysis and an impact assessment for five recently developed roads. ITDP officials had conducted a similar study on several roads in the PMC area in 2022. PCMC officials have asked the ITDP team to share some measures that can be immediately implemented on these roads to make them safe for citizens.
“We have asked the survey teams to suggest measures to make these roads safe for citizens. We will immediately implement the short-term measures,” Bapusaheb Gaikwad, executive engineer of PCMC, told TOI.
ITDP’s Kulkarni said the team had already suggested several measures to the PCMC, and would document the changes after two months. “We checked if the selected roads were developed as per the IRC guidelines. Not even one road was found to be built in adherence to the guidelines. DY Patil Road in Akurdi or Linear Garden Road in Pimple Saudagar were found to be complying with the norms by at least 80%.”
Siddhartha Godbole, senior associate of ITDP who was part of the survey team, said the situation was no different in Pune city also as not a single road surveyed in 2022 was fully complying with the IRC guidelines.
He said speeding was one of the major concerns in Pimpri Chinchwad. “It was an on-ground survey. We visited each road almost 3-4 times before reporting the findings. Non-continuous footpaths and cycle tracks were also common in Pimpri Chinchwad,” he said.
The survey was conducted over a period of six months ending early Jan this year, with an intent to understand and analyse the impact of street transformations on the twin cities’ urban infrastructure.
The survey stated that not even one road in the PCMC limits were in accordance to the guidelines of the Indian Road Congress (ICR) and more than 45% of the major roads were encroached upon by illegal vendors and shop extensions.
“We analysed all the road designs as per the available parameters. It was observed that of the 13 roads selected for the survey, barely three-four performed well on different parameters, while issues like footpath encroachments and poor maintenance plagued a majority of these roads,” Pranjal Kulkarni, programme manager at ITDP, told TOI.
The road assessment consisted of three major components — situational and comparative analysis and an impact assessment for five recently developed roads. ITDP officials had conducted a similar study on several roads in the PMC area in 2022. PCMC officials have asked the ITDP team to share some measures that can be immediately implemented on these roads to make them safe for citizens.
“We have asked the survey teams to suggest measures to make these roads safe for citizens. We will immediately implement the short-term measures,” Bapusaheb Gaikwad, executive engineer of PCMC, told TOI.
ITDP’s Kulkarni said the team had already suggested several measures to the PCMC, and would document the changes after two months. “We checked if the selected roads were developed as per the IRC guidelines. Not even one road was found to be built in adherence to the guidelines. DY Patil Road in Akurdi or Linear Garden Road in Pimple Saudagar were found to be complying with the norms by at least 80%.”
Siddhartha Godbole, senior associate of ITDP who was part of the survey team, said the situation was no different in Pune city also as not a single road surveyed in 2022 was fully complying with the IRC guidelines.
He said speeding was one of the major concerns in Pimpri Chinchwad. “It was an on-ground survey. We visited each road almost 3-4 times before reporting the findings. Non-continuous footpaths and cycle tracks were also common in Pimpri Chinchwad,” he said.