Pune: Pune city has established its independent identity as a city that offers educational, cultural, business, and industrial opportunities. In view of Pune city's strateguc importance, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has instructed officials to for strong implementation of steps levaraging advanced technology to make the city free from traffic headaches.

His instructions came at comprehensive review of Pune city's traffic congestion problem in his committee room at Mantralaya in Mumbai on Tuesday, stated a press release.

Senior officials like Additional Chief Secretary of the Public Works Department Manisha Mhaiskar, Additional Chief Secretary of the Urban Development Department Asimkumar Gupta, Secretary of the Public Works Department Sadashiv Salunkhe, Divisional Commissioner of Pune Chandrakant Pulakundwar, and Additional Police Commissioner of Pune City Manoj Patil were present at the meeting. While Pune City Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar, PMRDA Metropolitan Commissioner Yogesh Mhase, and Pune Municipal Corporation Additional Commissioner B. Prithviraj participated through video conferencing. During the meeting, Pune city traffic police made a presentation.

Due to the employment opportunities created by the industrial development in and around Pune city, citizens from various parts of the state come to Pune. As a result, Pune city has rapidly urbanized. This process is ongoing, and Pune city has doubled its growth over the past few years. Due to this increasing population, there is tremendous pressure on the city's infrastructure, causing traffic congestion issues for the local citizens. Considering this, Mr Ajit Pawar instructed that Pune residents must be relieved from the traffic congestion under any circumstances, and effective implementation of various measures should be carried out.

All possible measures will be taken to resolve the traffic congestion in Pune city. Initially, the focus will be on low-cost, short-term solutions. Instructions were given to implement measures such as introducing one-way traffic systems, removing encroachments along the roads, reducing signal times, managing signal-free traffic, widening internal roads, and connecting missing links, Mr Pawar said at the meeting

The Pune traffic police should send a detailed proposal for measures to resolve the city's traffic congestion. Consequently, the municipal corporation should remove encroachments at Navale Junction on the Pune-Katraj road. For this, the Pune City Police Commissioner should provide police security. Priority measures should be taken to resolve traffic congestion at locations such as Navale Bridge, Koregaon Park, and ABC Chowk. Funds will be made available for the initiatives to resolve traffic congestion. Artificial intelligence and advanced technology should be used to solve this problem. Police, the municipal corporation, the public works department, the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority, and other agencies involved in traffic management should work in coordination to address the issue. A coordination committee comprising traffic experts from these agencies should be set up, the Deputy CM said.