Aurangabad: In the wake of Beed bypass claiming two lives in a short span of time, commissioner of police Chiranjeev Prasad visisted the vulenrable stretches of the road on Monday.Accompanied by a large police force, the commissioner of police walked a stretch of about four kilometre starting from Mahanubhav Asharam Chowk and issued directives to register offences against encroachers on both sides of the highway. Of the 134 identified encroachments that have cropped up on the 10 kilometre long road, police managed to clear about three kilometres of the stretch.With the police chief coming down heavily, some of the encroachers started removing their setups themselves, especially the ones that had come up in the stretch from Jabinda lawns to MIT college.With regard to the permanent constructions made by some of the marriage lawns and shops, Prasad asked the owners to come with substantial proof to support their claims of legal constructions.Earlier, a large group of locals staged a demonstration to protest agaisnt the number of lives that accidents along the Beed bypass have claimed. Residents raised slogans against official apathy and vehemently demanded widening the road and a service road.The surge in the number of lives that accidents along the Beed bypass have claimed has failed to move the state government to act upon the proposal for widening the bypass. The proposal to convert the four-lane road into seven lanes at a financial outlay of Rs 150 crore was sent to the government last year.Vijay Kulkarni, one of the affected residents from Sara-Sidhdhi society in Deolai area, questioned the delay in widening Beed bypass. “How many more deaths will move the government to action? We are apprehensive about the day-to-day safety of our family members while commuting on the bypass which is no less than a death trap now” said Kulkarni.Heavy vehicular traffic, including heavy vehicles, inundate the road round the clock. The absence of a service road makes it all the more difficult for residents and pedestrians to manouvre amid the heavy traffic. The road has already claimed 60 lives in the last six years.Shiv Sena MLA Sanjay Shirsat, who visited the bypass along with the police chief on Monday, said none of the road-related proposals from Maharashtra were passed in the recently concluded budget session of the state legislature. “The proposal for widening Beed bypass has been already sent to the government. We are confident that it will be passed during the monsoon session of the state legislature,” he said.Shirsat, from whose constituency the bypass passes, said that plans were afoot to build a temporary service road. “It has been decided that we will build a temporary service road till the bypass is widened. With the help of police and the civic body, we are removing encroachments for building the facility,” said the Shiv Sena MLA.

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