Pune: Several residents were caught off guard on Thursday morning after Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and Pune traffic police abruptly barricaded key roads in the old city areas, triggering massive traffic snarls and throwing school and office commutes into disarray.Before the clock struck 8am, PMC workers descended on major thoroughfares, setting up barricades and even installing stages across stretches of Tilak Road and Laxmi Road, effectively choking vehicular movement during rush hour. The sudden move sparked confusion and frustration among motorists. Resultantly, traffic quickly piled up across adjoining roads, while several school vans were left stranded in congestion, causing delays in students reaching their schools.As chaos unfolded on the streets, additional commissioner of police Manoj Patil stepped in and directed PMC and traffic police to immediately dismantle the barricades and stages.“We had requested them to install barricades and stages to regulate traffic movement and facilitate police functioning late on Thursday night. But the work was undertaken on Thursday morning,” Patil said, indicating a lapse in timing that turned a planned traffic management exercise into a commuter nightmare.Defending the move, Rajesh Gurram, head of Vishrambaug Wada ward office, said joint inspections had been conducted on Wednesday and the barricades were installed on Thursday morning in consultation with the city police. “The structures were, however, removed in the afternoon,” Gurram said.While normalcy was restored later in the day, the episode left commuters questioning how a coordinated civic-police exercise ended up paralysing some of Pune’s busiest roads at the height of the morning rush.
