‘Killer’ speedbreakers: In a first, PCMC to pay Rs 5-lakh aid

Civic officials said this would be first-of-its-kind move initiated by the PCMC in its 30-year history.

Pune Newsline had on July 7 highlighted the accident that occurred due to an ill-designed speedbreaker.

In a first-of-its-kind response, the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation has decided to pay Rs 5 lakh as compensation to the family of an accident victim who lost her life due to an ill-designed speed breaker.

The decision was taken at an emergency meeting called on Monday following the death of Anjana Sawant (43) on Sunday — she had sustained serious injuries in an accident that took place due to a poorly constructed speedbreaker in Chinchwad last month. Unmarked, jumbo-sized speed breakers dot Pimpri-Chinchwad and have claimed six lives so far.

“We will pay Rs 5 lakh to the family of the victim (Anjana). We will request the state government to pay the amount from the Chief Minister’s Fund,” said Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Commissioner Rajiv Jadhav.

Story continues below this ad

Civic officials said this would be first-of-its-kind move initiated by the PCMC in its 30-year history.

“Never before has PCMC cared for a victim of its own faults. This will be the first time PCMC will be paying the amount,” said a senior civic official.

However, the Common People’s Front, which had sought a compensation of Rs 50 lakh to the family of the victim, said Rs 5 lakh was too meagre a sum.

“You first let a citizen die and then make a mockery of his death by offering just Rs 5 lakh. PCMC should pay not less than Rs 50 lakh for not constructing a proper speed breaker. We will soon meet the municipal commissioner and tell him point blank to give Rs 50 lakh to the victim’s family,” said D G Baliga of the front.

Story continues below this ad

“Why should the state government pay for PCMC’s mistake? PCMC should pay the amount from its own pocket. The commissioner should make executive engineers and other senior officials to pay the amount from their salary as they were responsible for constructing a faulty speed breaker that is life-threatening for commuters,” said Domnic Lobo, founder-member of the front.

The PCMC chief met executive engineers on Monday and discussed the ill-designed speed breakers and the latest death caused by one of them.

“We have received demands to pay assistance to the family of the victim. Accordingly, we will urge the government to pay the amount from the CM’s fund,” he said.

At the meeting, the PCMC commissioner discussed the need for putting in place speed breakers that do not kill commuters or damage their vehicles. While the commissioner argued in favour of rumble strips, a road safety feature to alert drivers of a potential danger, the officials tried to convince him that the civic body was against the concept.

Story continues below this ad

The commissioner, however, said since rumble strips would not cause deaths, PCMC should go for them. “I will ensure that proper speed breakers come up on city roads,” he said.

On June 16, Anjana Sawant fell from the two-wheeler she was riding pillion with her husband after it hit the speed breaker in front of the MIDC office in Chinchwad. She suffered a brain injury and passed away at YCM Hospital at 2 pm on Sunday.

On May 7, Amit Waghere, 21, fell from his bike after it hit speed breakers on the Pimprigaon-Pimple Saudagar Road. He has since undergone three surgeries and remains in coma. In the last few years, at least six deaths have occurred in Pimpri-Chinchwad due to the faulty construction of speed breakers.

Manoj Dattatrye More

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades. Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died. Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More

Click here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories