Construction of 170-km Pune Ring Road to begin post monsoon

Construction of the much-awaited 170-km Pune Ring Road is set to begin after the ongoing monsoon. The Ring Road will significantly improve traffic and bring down pollution caused by traffic jams as it will separate inner-city traffic from highway traffic. Tenders for the inaugural 32 km stretch, between the industrial hub of Chakan and Ahmednagar Road, and Nagar Road to Solapur, have been released. The project is being undertaken in the public-private partnership (PPP) mode by the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA). The PMRDA is now drafting the detailed project report (DPR) for the inner part of the Ring Road. The Ring Road is a massive undertaking that will bring together six national highways which traverse the Pune Metropolitan Area (PMR) - NH-40 (Mumbai-Pune), NH-60 (Pune-Nashik), NH-753F (Pune-Ahmednagar), NH-65 (Pune-Solapur), NH-965 (Pune-Saswad-Palkhi Marg) and NH-48 (Pune-Bengaluru). The PMRDA will also look at creating new residential and commercial nodes that dovetail with the Ring Road. Anil Pharande, President, CREDAI (Pune Metro), said that this is by far the most progressive step that is being taken to improve the quality of life and overall efficiency in Pune. Across India, the main development impetus has not been on critical infrastructure but on creating more and more cash-cow real estate projects wherever possible, he said. Citizens will benefit from this development model primarily because they can reach their places of work with a minimum commute and get back home easily.