PMC workers set up barricades and even installed stages across stretches of Tilak Road and Laxmi Road around 8am
“The structures were, however, removed in the afternoon,” Gurram said. As chaos unfolded on the streets, additional commissioner of police Manoj Patil stepped in and directed PMC and traffic police to immediately dismantle the barricades and stages. the episode left commuters questioning how a coordinated civic-police exercise ended up paralysing some of Pune’s busiest roads at the height of the morning rush While normalcy was restored later in the day.
Pune: Several residents were caught off guard on Thursday morning after Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and Pune traffic police abruptly barricaded key roads in the old city areas, triggering massive traffic snarls and throwing school and office commutes into disarray. “We had requested them to install barricades and stages to regulate traffic movement and facilitate police functioning late on Thursday night. But the work was undertaken on Thursday morning,” Patil said, indicating a lapse in timing that turned a planned traffic management exercise into a commuter nightmare. Defending the move, Rajesh Gurram, head of Vishrambaug Wada ward office, said joint inspections had been conducted on Wednesday and the barricades were installed on Thursday morning in consultation with the city police.