Noopur Bhandiwad, Pune
Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari inaugurated the much-awaited Chandni Chowk flyover on the Pune-Bengaluru Highway on Saturday, August 12. The flyover was built with the aim to tackling traffic congestion in the city.
While Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde attended the event virtually via video call, Deputy Chief Ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar were present at the function. According to Gadkari, the 16.98 km long bridge, costing Rs. 865 crore, will solve the main issue of traffic congestion in Pune city and district. “Under this project of a total length of 16 km, the work of the 2.2 km long Chandni Chowk Interchange has been completed,” he said.
Adding further, he said, “Both sides of the Mumbai-Bangalore highway have 2-lane internal and 2-lane external service. A total of 8 ramps have been constructed to go in 8 different directions from the same interchange, which will provide strong interconnectivity to various areas.”
The foundation stone for this project was laid around 5 years ago. However, it took a long time for Pune Municipal Corporation to acquire the land due to a shortage of funds in order to purchase properties like multi-story buildings, bungalows, and a number of plots that were privately owned, including those owned by government agencies. This land acquisition caused multiple delays until PMC eventually handed over the project to NHAI as a highway stretch was also to be constructed along with civic roads in the project.
Chandni Chowk is a major junction interconnecting key areas such as Bavdhan, Pashan, the National Defense Academy, Paud Road, Mulshi Road, and the Mumbai-Bengaluru Bypass. Gadkari asked Pawar and Chandrakant Patil to come up with names for the newly inaugurated flyover, as per some media reports. According to The Indian Express, NCP MP Supriya Sule had proposed for the flyover to be named after Senapati Bapat earlier.