30 Aug Chandni Chowk Flyover Proposal for Pune

The much awaited project of the Chandni Chowk flyover was recently launched by Hon. Minister for Road Transport & Highways Shri. Nitin Gadkari. This western gateway into the city of Pune and out of it is a crammed up mess of roads going all over the place. To add to this, this is a point that connects Kothrud, one of the busiest suburbs to outer areas like Bavdhan (extended Kothrud) and a new, growing area of Bhugaon & Bhukum. This western gateway also leads to Hinjewadi, the IT economic centre, and thus you can imagine the state of traffic at this junction at peak hours. As if this was not enough, the Chandni Chowk junction is located exactly at the crest of hills, and slopes down in three directions – towards Kothurd, towards Bhugaon and towards Pashan.

A swanky and a very visionary design for Chandni Chowk is placed and looking at Hon. Minister Nitin Gadkari’s track record, it will certainly be realised. Although, the proposal is being called a ‘flyover’, I feel it is a transit hub. It doesn’t merely connect two points by a bridge, but will provide a multi directional mobility solution. Furthermore, this junction acts like a gateway into the city and can provide a great opportunity for placing public transport hubs/interchanges.

In his speech, Hon. Minister Nitin Gadkari spoke about the need for us to shift to public transport.The Chandni Chowk interchange proposal gives us a perfect opportunity to place public transport hub amidst the various flyovers and service roads proposed. This can be a gateway/exchange point where people from 6 directions can come to and take a public transport option while entering Pune.

Land acquisitions for this project are underway and Pune Municipal Corporation is to give 16 acres of land for this project. In the best interest of the city and so that our words can get translated into action, the opportunity of this project should be used to allocate space for public transport. In fact, if we can get such interchanges at every gateway into Pune, we will be able to shift hundreds of people, entering the city, into buses and also the Metro.

The Chandni Chowk interchange proposal is also important for people movement and not just vehicular movement. Today, in this junction, pedestrians are pushed to the fringe of the road. They are seen walking on an edge, almost teetering on the brink. Most of these pedestrians are those who are using public transport and find that linkages are missing. For example, a bus comes to the Paud Road Bus Depot, but does not extend to Bavdhan. So the commuters get off at the Depot and walk to a bus stop in Bavdhan to move further. Similarly, commuters from Mulshi/Bhugaon come to a point in Chandni Chowk and alight to catch another mode of transport on the highway. These movements are very very critical to be addressed in the Chandni Chowk interchange proposal.

Thirdly, the Metro’s logical extension from Vanaz is to Chandni Chowk in due course. Thus, this Interchange provides the necessary opportunity and possibility to integrate extension of a Metro Station and a multi-model transport Hub into its design. This can be phased out, but its design needs to be integrated today.

A video presentation on this proposal can be viewed on https://youtu.be/6wj50a3KgXw, however, this does not make it clear as to the movement of people, public transport and interchanges. This presentation is more focused on the vehicular movement that will be greatly resolved by the Interchange proposal.

An excellent article by Yogesh Dandekar available at https://pushkarkanvinde.wordpress.com/2017/08/28/chandani-chowk-interchage-thoughts-of-yogesh-dandekar/ also highlights similar points that this proposal needs to address.

While most of our road/flyover designs can/have resolved vehicular traffic mobility, how can we integrate ‘peoples’ movement that is so crucial at the Chandni Chowk interchange? is the question that needs to be asked.