Solapur Road, Nagar Road and Mumbai-Pune highway traffic will not enter the city

The heavy vehicular traffic that pours into the city from the highways contributing to over 30 per cent of the city’s traffic chaos may soon be diverted externally.

The Maharashtra Public Works Department (PWD) is planning two ring roads to externally connect Solapur Road, Nagar Road and Mumbai-Pune highway. While the first ring road will be connecting Solapur Road to the old Mumbai-Pune highway near Talegaon, the second will connect Katraj to Nagar Road near Lonikand. The project, currently under study is expected to start by April next year.

“Currently, the vehicles that ply between Mumbai and Hyderabad travel through the city via Pimpri-Chinchwad- Yerwada-Nagar Road route. The first highway will divert these vehicles from Talegaon to join Solapur Road near Chouphula. The second highway will divert similar traffic that passes through the city via Katraj to Solapur Road via Phursungi-Loni Kalbhor, thus avoiding congestion at Swargate and other busy chowks in the city. This road will further connect Loni Kalbhor to Lonikand to facilitate commuting between Solapur Road and Nagar Road,” said N H Jalkote, chief engineer, PWD.

“The land acquisition process for the project is near-completion with the only exception of Kondhwa-Phursungi patch, where acquisition is expected to be complete within next three months,” added Jalkote.

The project, worth Rs 340 crore, is currently under feasibility study and is expected to be sent to the state-level infrastructure committee following which tenders will be released for the involvement of private companies in the construction. “Both the ring roads will be of four lanes. The length of the first road will be 40 km while that of the latter would be 36 km. Both the highways would be constructed on Build-Operate-Transfer basis post the construction by private sector after which vehicles would be able to use the road on payment of toll decided as per the guidelines by the state government,” added Jalkote.