Pune: This year, Punawale IT professional Ravi Chauhan’s Ganeshotsav decoration goes beyond a festive display. Recreating the traffic bottleneck that allegedly cost his 73-year-old mother her life, it sends a message on the area’s long-standing infrastructure and congestion problems.Chauhan, living in Punawale for three years, said his mother, Nutan Chauhan, suffered a heart attack on Jan 1. The ambulance ferrying her to a hospital got stuck in heavy traffic near the underpass connecting Punawale-Wakad-Hinjewadi stretches. His mother died before reaching the hospital.“We were unable to get through the traffic. She breathed her last before we could reach the hospital, just a turn away from the underpass. The congestion was so severe that we could not get across in time,” Chauhan told TOI.The tragedy prompted him to highlight Punawale’s traffic problem through home Ganesh decoration this year. The theme depicts Lord Ganesh arriving in Pune for darshan and getting caught in Punawale’s traffic congestion. An ambulance stuck near an underpass forms the centrepiece, highlighting the difficulties residents and emergency vehicles face. Ganesh, revered as the “Vighnaharta” or remover of obstacles, takes matters into his own hands by calling for better roads, alternative routes and a clear passage for ambulances.The message goes beyond highlighting the traffic problem. While devotees traditionally turn to Ganesh to remove their obstacles, the decoration urges people to become ‘Vighnahartas’ for one another.“Authorities can do their part by improving roads and infrastructure, while motorists can help by following traffic rules, avoiding lane cutting and wrong-side driving, and giving way to ambulances. The theme conveys that small acts of responsibility, coupled with timely civic action, can help ease the citizens’ everyday problems,” Chauhan said.The IT employee said congestion around the underpass was a daily problem despite increasing development in Punawale and neighbouring areas. He said even a 5km journey towards Hinjewadi IT Park could take 45 minutes to an hour during peak traffic.“I lost my mother because of this traffic jam. I do not want any other family to go through what we did. That is why I chose to use my Ganapati decoration this year to send out a social message and draw the attention of the authorities concerned to the issue,” Chauhan said.He said the ongoing service road work had not fully eased the bottlenecks. “Authorities keep saying the work is going on, but there is not much movement on the ground,” he said.The decoration was made entirely at home using recycled material. The vehicles, ambulance and other elements were created as three-dimensional models. Chauhan said it took nearly three months to complete the setup.The IT professional has been creating such themed decorations for about seven years in Pune, continuing with a practice his father started in Mumbai. Last year, his theme, “Disconnect to Reconnect”, focused on excessive dependence on social media and technology. It encouraged people to reconnect with family and society.Punawale underpass remains a major traffic bottleneck in the rapidly developing areas of Pimpri Chinchwad and the adjacent PMRDA region. The two underpasses serve as key links for residents travelling towards Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad.Residents have repeatedly raised concerns over the congestion, prompting proposals to widen the existing service roads, build additional underpasses and develop an elevated corridor. Traffic woes continue to persist because most of these measures are yet to be implemented on the ground.
