Deputy CM Ajit Pawar directs officials to resolve traffic issues in Chakan

Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar held a meeting with the officials concerned at Mantralaya in Mumbai on Wednesday and directed them to take steps to solve the traffic issues in Chakan, days after citizens threatened to stage an indefinite protest.

MLA Dilip Mohite Patil, who attended the meeting, said, “Deputy chief minister has told all the officials concerned of NHAI (National Highways Authority of India), PWD (public works department), traffic police and the district administration to visit Chakan on Thursday to review the situation.

Last week, residents of Chakan had threatened to launch an indefinite protest from August 9 if the govt failed to solve the traffic issues in their area. Earlier, members of the Chakan industrial area had raised this issue with the local administration.

Ajit Pawar directed the police department to deploy more traffic personnel in Chakan for traffic management and advised the administration to stop heavy vehicles outside the city limits during the peak hours, when employees working in industries travel. “An allocation of Rs179 crore has been made in the budget of state govt to build new roads and widen the existing ones to solve the traffic congestion issue in Chakan,” he said.

More than 10 lakh employees work in different industries in the Chakan area. The industries’ body raised several demands, including an eight-lane road between Nashik Phata and Rajgurunagar and construction of a feeder route connecting Talegaon-Chakan-Shikrapur. “The traffic situation in the Chakan industrial area has gone from bad to worse. We have written to the roadways minister Nitin Gadkari and other authorities about the situation. There are road accident-related deaths almost every day,” Dilip Batwal, the secretary of the Federation of Chakan Industries, said.

Residents highlighted that the administration had not taken action against the encroachments on the national highway for a long time. “Earlier, there used to be traffic jams only during the peak hours. Now, we witness traffic congestion in Chakan anytime we come out on the road. No action has been taken against the illegally operating autorickshaws and other transport vehicles that do not follow discipline and block roads,” Dhiraj Mukte, a resident of Chakan, said.

Residents claimed that the problem intensified during the peak hours because of inadequate deployment of traffic personnel. One of them said severe traffic issues impacted productivity of all employees in the Chakan industrial belt.

“On many occasions, the work at factories gets hit because workers fail to reach on time to operate the machinery. This causes loss to industries,” he added.