Taking cognizance of the TomTom Traffic Index report that ranked Pune among the five ‘slowest traffic’ cities in the world along with Kolkata and Bengaluru, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has decided to address the traffic woes of the northern part of the city comprising Nagar Road, Vishrantwadi, Viman Nagar, Airport area, and Wagholi. “Pune recorded an average travel time of 33 minutes for covering 10 km length. Increased private vehicles and spreading urban areas are some of the triggering factors for the traffic congestion issues observed in the city,” said Yuvraj Deshmukh, in charge of the recently constituted civic Transport Planning department. The PMC has identified infrastructural requirements to bridge the gap between demand and supply in the northern part of the city, he said, and added, “A mobility plan for Nagar Road and Airport area integration plan will be prepared with the help of traffic simulation by assessing the impact of proposed developments within the area. This will help in understanding traffic conditions in these surroundings and also to assess the feasibility of the proposals.” The objective is to use state-of-the-art microsimulation tools and innovative mitigations to ease the congestion issues in the northern part of the city – a busy and congested area connecting the city traffic to Pune airport. The roads that would be covered include Nagar Road, Vishrantwadi Road, Ambedkar Path, Airport Road, and New Airport Road. The study will consider road safety, signal design, and smart innovation using technology. “Traffic has been affecting this stretch for a long time, and the situation has worsened in the last few years due to the development of the area. The current roads are unable to handle the growing number of vehicles, leading to bottlenecks and delays during peak hours,” said another civic officer. There will be an analysis of proposed infrastructure, like flyovers, underpasses, and grade separators in the area. The area will soon have a ring road and an elevated double-decker bridge of 53 km from Viman Nagar to Shirur, and a traffic management plan for existing and projected scenarios will be prepared, specifying the traffic diversion plans, alternate routes, and analysis of blackspots, among others. It would also analyse air traveller characteristics and their impact on mobility corridors, the officer said.
