The spot on Pune’s Katraj-Kondhwa road where a 16-year-old girl died after she was struck by a heavy vehicle
Police data shows in the past five years, there have been more than 50 accidents and nearly 25 deaths within the 3.5-km stretch between the Rajas Society in Katraj and Pisoli near Khadi Machine Chowk in Kondhwa. The most recent death was on Tuesday, of 16-year-old Class X student Pratibha Naik, who fell off her father’s scooter when they were rear-ended by a truck near Kapilamrut Dairy. But this staggered progress has resulted in several missing links and long unusable sections, including an entire underpass near the Iskcon temple, which was finished over a year ago, but hasn’t been opened due to pending acquisition of adjoining land.
And our worries grow whenever we hear of another accident or death,” says Pawar. Chandrakant Zombade, who witnessed Tuesday’s accident, says the stretch where it happened — a very busy U-Turn — is a meeting point of traffic from all directions. That poor girl’s life would’ve been saved if PMC had finished this project on time,” says Sumedha Singh, resident of a housing society that’s close to where Pratibha, her sister and father were struck by the truck.
For commuters, the under-construction route has become a hazard. Most of the casualties involved collisions between heavy vehicles and two-wheeler riders. Her sister, Vaishnavi, was on the scooter too. Her legs were crushed under the truck. “Except for one year, when there was some progress, nothing has moved. The road’s still a mess. Traffic police have since installed signals and barricades at the spot to regulate the U-Turn and prevent vehicles coming from opposite directions from colliding. “But what’s the use of all of that when roadworks are still on? Widening work is currently on along sections where PMC has acquired land.