Chandni Chowk Fly-Over, Noida Towers & Society!

 

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“Traffic congestion is caused by vehicles, not by people in themselves.” … Jane Jacobs

I owe half of my sharing to Jane as what I wanted to say in hundreds of the words that she tells in mere ten words! But then that’s why she is the author of a book “The Death & Life of Great American Cities” which is a bible, Geeta, & whatever you can call it for Urban Planning & as usual problem is neither our citizens nor our rulers believe in reading such books or referring the content these wisdom treasures carries & outcome is, all we do is blame each other for any civic problem we face! If you are confused about which civic problem, recently the headline news may make you think, if Chandni Chowk flyover is completed then all the city’s traffic problems will be solved, such is the hype. Well, this Chandni Chowk is nothing to do with Delhi’s famous place with same name but is a crossing over Mumbai-Bengaluru highway on western (Kothrud) side of Pune city at which new fly over work is going on (for ages, sarcastic me) & traffic has become chaos for the commuters from that stretch! Now one may say what’s so big deal in it, like our dear SRK (don’t ask who is he plz), “bade bade Shaherome, chote chote hadase hote rahete hai” i.e., in big city’s small accidents keep happening, here accident is used as analogy & read it as inconvenience to the citizens!

Well, now you have been introduced to the subject of the sharing (partially) then you will say development work are part of the growth & during their construction some inconvenience is bound to happen as one can’t build a bridge or a road or Metro line or a flyover overnight with a magic wand & as a civil engineer by myself, I agree with this logic hundred percent! But then it's not about just one fly over or inconvenience caused while building it but it's about our attitude towards the entire process named development in & around cities, is the matter of sharing. As for last two years that work is going on in Chandni Chowk which is a major junction or hub for millions of commuters but it took Hon Chief Minister’s convoy getting stuck in the traffic jam this work causes every day, to speed up the steps required to reduce the traffic jam, is the matter of my sharing! And now the present connecting bridge will be demolished as Noida Towers (its a in phrase at present) is what Hon CM announced & as usual in Pune this also went into controversy. I will come to reference of Noida Towers later but let’s look at our attitude towards public works at large especially when they are directly related to the citizens day to day life & road or fly over or Metro is at the core of it in a city like Pune where numbers of vehicles are more than number of people living in it.

This bitter fact about the millions of the private vehicles needed to be on the roads is the first & foremost failure of Pune as a city, as right from BRT (plz don’t ask the longform), to merging PMC & PCMC public bus service to HCMTR (again, no long form plz) to, to Riverside Road to Metro routes & now Chandni Chowk & yes University Chowk Grade Separator, so many options have been tried (and has failed)  & all these on the hard-earned public tax money staying in legal homes in this city (about legal homes, later)! And yet this city is getting choked everyday everywhere in the traffic, it’s a shame for all the so-called educated & wise citizens of Pune & I mean each of us, not just govt! The very reason is we are trying to accommodate more vehicles than reducing them as Jane Jacob says, it’s the vehicles which cause the traffic jams & not the people. I am sorry Jane, I differ here with your logic about the traffic (for the first time with you), as your law is right but it’s the few people who are responsible to force other many people use the vehicles which in turn causes the traffic jams, so it’s not the vehicles but the people only, are responsible for traffic jams, is the fact for Pune city at least! And then it’s the “Chalta hai” attitude of our govt & Janata which again is the result that the development works keeps going for years & till they get complete the basic purpose is defeated, Satara Highway is classic example of it as the time one stretch of the road gets functional the next stretch of the road needs repairing, making the journey a nightmare! At the same time while such works are going on the very Govt which hangs private industries (read as builders) for any mishap at their respective workplaces turns a blind eye, ear, nose towards their own safety norms. If you are so naïve not to believe me, then walk on Karve Road or Baner Road where Metro work is going on (if you come back safely) & share your view about road safety to me. No wonder the city witnesses nearly 300 plus deaths on the road (in one month) & nearly 100 nos. of them are pedestrians who have no choice but walk on the roads without any safety gear for them! And on top of it ignorant attitude of the two & four-wheeler drivers towards the pedestrians or towards entire traffic rules, I deliberately excluded 3-wheeler drivers i.e., our aur rikshaws, as they think they are above any traffic rules so no use in considering them!

Need of the time was, is & will be a strong, safe, dedicated, disciplined public transport in place & unfortunately we have PMPML but we don’t have someone who will make few people in the system know the importance of this weapon against traffic jams, that’s the object of my sharing! As having PMPML in place in its present status in the city as traffic solution is like having a watch-dog of good breed in the home but it’s tied all the time, not given proper food & not allowed to bark yet when the theft happens then only the dog is blamed for negligence in the duty of guarding the home! Again, if you don’t believe me then try travelling by PMPML bus on a busy work day morning or evening time, right from bus stops to time table everything is a mess & yet I congratulate to all those who travels by PMPML as well its personnel (read as, staff) who are part of this system to keep it working or else Pune roads would have been, God knows what!

And then there was another news which made the headlines here in Pune as well in Maharashtra also as it was about demolition of Noida Towers by muffled inward blasting. These were illegal buildings in Noida, UP & has been ordered by Hon Supreme Court to demolish but the legal fight went for nearly 15 years. Joke is, in this country getting an order to demolish an illegal building takes 15 years (that also is early, actually) but the order to demolish a legally built bridge or fly-over with public money, takes just a minute! As usual there were Memes & Jokes on social media about demolition of these towers & sadly right from our Hon CM to even Hon High Court judges started giving example of demolition of these buildings! Where are we heading guys, is it some Al-Qaeda or Don Corleone giving threat by using such illegal building’s demolition as a set example, come-on, how such buildings can ever come in the existence in the first place that their demolition the govt portraying as victory or success, can someone ask this question to the system, at least the builders must ask this who built (or try to build) by following the law (read as, laws)? And who has stopped the govt to demolish every illegal structure like the Noida Towers but before that, think of demolishing the system which allows such illegal buildings to be built, is what I will say!

Its high-time to build a system which will stop giving birth to illegal buildings & stop forcing people to use private vehicles for their daily uses or else Jane will have to write her new book about “Death of the Cities in India” & we will be definitely topping the list Punekars, mind it!

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Sanjay Deshpande 

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about real estate in Pune at You Tube link below..

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4xX7eopH5o&t=5s

 

Please do visit my blog links below to read about real estate & home buying! 

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2021/09/choosing-right-home.html

http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2021/09/blog-post_21.html

Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way (Click link below) 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345

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