Pune: Just two days of monsoon rain have once again exposed the fragile state of the city’s roads and drainage infrastructure, with residents flooding social media with images and videos of cratered streets, persistent waterlogging, uneven carriageways and utility chamber covers protruding or sinking into the road, bringing traffic citywide to a crawl.As infrastructure buckled under routine monsoon showers, severe traffic snarls were reported across Pune, particularly in Hinjewadi, Hadapsar, Bund Garden Road and service roads along the Pune-Bengaluru highway. Commuter woes intensified on Thursday after Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) shut Mangaldas Chowk-Jehangir Hospital Chowk stretch following a sewage pipeline burst, triggering gridlock in surrounding areas.
Heavy traffic congestion at the Punawale subway
For residents of Kalyaninagar, the irony was hard to miss. Only weeks ago, they were grappling with severe water shortages and anxiously awaiting the monsoon. But when the rains finally arrived, it took just two days of routine rainfall to transform the road from Cybage Tower to Kalyani Bungalow into what residents described as a flowing stream.“This isn’t just an inconvenience, it is a massive safety hazard. This arterial road serves four preschools and is flanked by two major schools. Every day, hundreds of toddlers, schoolchildren and their caregivers are forced to navigate waterlogged roads and hidden potholes. When PMC plans urban development, does it ever think about the most vulnerable? PMC must urgently audit this corridor and present a long-term climate resilience plan before a tragedy occurs,” resident Jahnvi Sreedhar said.Wanowrie resident Jatin Kamble said he suffered a back injury after his motorcycle struck a pothole concealed beneath rainwater on Prince of Wales Road on Wednesday evening. “I had to skip work because of the injury. Every year authorities talk about pre-monsoon preparedness and spend crores of rupees on it, but the condition of roads tells a different story,” he said.Residents across the city, from Pancard Club Road to Bavdhan, alleged that multiple civic departments and private utility agencies repeatedly dug up roads and failed to restore them, causing potholes. Camp resident Kripesh Bhisal experienced the consequences firsthand while travelling to the Pune RTO on Wednesday morning. “It took me more than an hour and a half to reach the RTO because of slow-moving traffic and pothole-ridden roads. The stretch from The Bishop’s School towards the Race Course is particularly dangerous,” he said.The Punawale underpass has emerged yet again as a chronic congestion hotspot. Although the subway escaped flooding, its narrow width proved incapable of handling increased traffic volumes. “Despite road widening works around the area, the subway remains untouched and continues to be a major bottleneck,” resident Dipesh Kale said.The city’s drainage woes were equally visible along the Pune-Bengaluru highway. A section of the service road near Mhalunge remained submerged, forcing motorists to squeeze their vehicles through a narrow dry strip along the edge. “This stretch gets waterlogged every time it rains, highlighting the poor drainage infrastructure along one of the city’s busiest corridors,” Balewadi resident Avinash Srivastava said.Harshal Mane, president of the Forum for IT Employees Maharashtra, said crucial infrastructure projects, including service road works and bridge construction near Surya Hospital, should have been completed before the monsoon onset. “There are chronic congestion points in Hinjewadi Phase-1 and at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Chowk that require immediate attention. Encroachments continue to worsen the situation. Pedestrians have virtually no safe crossing points, forcing them to weave through heavy traffic and risk their lives,” Mane said.Bavdhan resident Manish Deo alleged that PMC’s pre-monsoon stormwater drain and sewer cleaning drives were either inadequate or poorly executed. “Road repairs and pothole filling are equally substandard,” he said, adding, “In Bavdhan Budruk, many roads are either in poor condition or simply don’t exist. What does exist is a landscape dotted with water-filled potholes.”(With inputs from Ashish Gupta & Joy Sengupta)
