Pune: The long-delayed Sadhu Vaswani bridge will not open before the monsoon, much to the frustration of thousands of daily commuters, despite pressure from the city’s top police brass.After Pune police commissioner Amitesh Kumar wrote to Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), urging it to blacklist the contractor for sluggish progress, civic officials did step on the gas. But the acceleration has come too late. The bridge, once hoped to be thrown open by May-end, is now expected to be ready only around Aug.For residents and commuters from Koregaon Park, Wadia College and Circuit House areas, the delay feels like yet another setback. Ever since work began, they said, traffic diversions became a way of life, forcing motorists to crawl through longer and congested routes on a daily basis. “This bridge is crucial. We don’t understand why the work cannot be finished on priority. It connects Nagar Road to Solapur Road. Because it is shut, people are wasting time, fuel and patience every single day,” Koregaon Park resident Ashok Singh said.PMC officials said the delay was not due to negligence, but unforeseen technical hurdles. Dinkar Gojare, head of PMC’s special projects department, said the major roadblock emerged beneath the railway tracks. “There is no issue with constructing the ramps on either side. While laying a water pipeline under the railway tracks, however, we discovered a box-type structure that completely obstructed the work. We had to revise our plans, and taking approvals from the railways took time. This revision has pushed the deadline to Aug,” Gojare said.He said after receiving the letter from the police commissioner’s office, the civic administration explained the situation and technical challenges in detail to the city police.That explanation, however, offered little comfort to road users stuck in daily gridlocks at Wadia College chowk, Bund Garden Road, Mangaldas Road and Ruby Hall Clinic Road. “The administration should have done a detailed study before starting work. People are suffering every day because of traffic jams. Now that the deadline has moved again, PMC must ensure it sticks to Aug,” Santosh Shirsat, another resident, said.The new Sadhu Vaswani bridge is being built to replace the old and narrow structure. While the old bridge had just two lanes, the new one will carry four lanes, promising smoother traffic flow once completed. The railways have also granted necessary rail blocks to allow the launch of bridge girders over the tracks.Work of three bridges, flyovers in advanced stagesPMC officials said there was better news on other fronts. Work on three other bridges or flyovers in Koregaon Park, Vishrantwadi and Ghorpadi has entered advanced stages and is expected to be completed by June. Additional municipal commissioner Omprakash Divte recently reviewed the projects and directed officials to conduct weekly progress checks on all ongoing infrastructure works.For now, though, commuters around Sadhu Vaswani bridge remain stuck between hope and honking traffic — waiting for a crucial connection that refuses to arrive on time.
