Watch Out! These Are The Most Dangerous Junctions In City

July 2, 2018

City Traffic Junctions — Image used for representation only

Pune’s traffic problems are mounting by the day, with accidents, many fatal, happening daily. Despite regular appeals to drivers to follow the rules, they frequently fail to do so and end up in accidents.

In many cases, particularly with two-wheelers, helmets are ignored leading to fatalities.There are many accident spots in the city, particularly at junctions, chowks and bridges that have raised an alarm among citizens. The Pune Traffic Police has reported 326 accidents across the different areas in the city in 2017.

We look at some of the most dangerous spots in the city where accidents,regular traffic jams and chaos happens daily.

Nawale bridge: There is no signal near the junction at the Nawale Bridge on the Mumbai – Bengaluru National Highway.

A large number of vehicles enter the city from this bypass road. Traffic from Katraj to the National Highway, Sinhgad Road, Dhayari and Narhe Road converge at this junction.
The flow of traffic from these roads is very heavy. Loaded heavy vehicles who travel from Mumbai-Bengaluru to Solapur Highway go from this chowk.
A total of 58 accidents have been reported from January to November in the previous year, resulting in the loss of 61 lives. Delayed construction of Mumbai-Bengaluru six-lane national highway project, speeding and careless driving are some of the major reasons behind the accidents.
In the last week of the previous year, one major accident happened in this chowk and an IT engineer lost her life.
Residential areas are also near this chowk.

Kunal Adsare, who works in Hinjewadi IT farm, said that it is difficult to cross the road below the bridge.

Vehicles come from all the sides like Katraj, Sinhgad Road, Narhe and Dhayri, particularly in the evening. He also added there are no traffic wardens in this chowk.

Rajiv Gandhi IT Park Flyover: Many motorists going towards Mumbai from Aundh, Wakad and Pimple Saudagar areas use the newly-constructed flyover before it joins the National Highway where they take a U-turn.

Many passengers, outstation travellers stand on the National Highway for transport there. Private tourist vehicles and buses stop in middle of the road to pick up passengers leading to congestion. This spells danger to motorists, two-wheeler riders and pedestrians too.
Commuters have been facing a harrowing time crossing the 2.5 km stretch between the Wakad Bridge and Shivaji Chowk, especially during the morning and evening peak hours.

Dange Chowk: The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) built the Aundh-Ravet Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) in Chinchwad at Dange Chowk.

PCMC constructed two separate bridges from Aundh to Ravet and Ravet to Aundh respectively. But the main point is that very less traffic goes from this bridge.
Heowever, when more people travel on the Chinchwad to Hinjewadi route below, they face traffic conjunction problem when they converege at this chowk.

Aniket Cheke, who travels daily from Chinchwad to Hinjewadi , said that there was no need to construct the bridge between Aundh to Ravet if you compare the flow of vehicles from Chinchwad to Hinjewadi which is more. The PCMC wasted the tax payers’ money by constructing needless flyovers, he added.

Khadi Machine Chowk: Khadi Machine Chowk connects Katraj-Kondhwa-Undri. It is one of the most accident prone and dangerous junctions in Pune city.

Pune city has no ring road connectivity facility and it exists only on paper. This has put pressure on Khadi Machine Chowk.
Heavily loaded heavy vehicles, containers and trucks travel from Mumbai-Bangaluru to Solapur Highway from this chowk creating chaos and confusion.