Pune: The traffic mess on Fergusson College Road because of the smart street makeover work is triggering snarls in the connecting lanes with motorists and bikers increasingly taking these routes to their destinations.Among the worst affected lanes are the ones passing by Venus Traders from Apte Road to FC Road, BMCC road and Wrangler Paranjape Road next to Vaishali restaurant. Vehicles often take these stretches, sometimes even in violation of the one-way norm, to avoid the congestion on FC Road.The ongoing beautification work of the arterial road in accordance with the Urban Street Design Guidelines, 2017, has triggered the mess. Citizens and activists are miffed with the work, as they feel that the width of FC Road is too less for such a project.The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has proposed a design, just like JM Road, along the 2.4-km stretch of FC Road from Garware bridge to the College of Agriculture junction.Citizens and traders operating on the road for long have started questioning if the work is at all beautifying the road or ruining it. “I’ve been running the shop for many years and have never seen such traffic snarls before. Though the number of vehicles entering and coming out of the BMCC road has always been huge, we never saw snarls,” said Laxman Birajdar, a shopkeeper on the BMCC road-FC Road annexe.“With the carriageway of FC Road reducing because of the ongoing beautification work and the ensuing traffic congestion, lot of motorists are taking the BMCC road as a detour. These vehicles, coupled with the ones coming in from the opposite direction, are reaching the BMCC road from the lane where the British Council was earlier located. Then there are vehicles coming from Bhandarkar Road. The result is a traffic mess,” he added.Apoorv Paranjape, who lives on the lane passing by Venus Traders and is a member of the Deccan Gymkhana Parisar Samiti, said the PMC project was defeating the very purpose of making FC Road a one-way thoroughfare.“FC Road is narrower than JM Road. With hawkers occupying most of the footpaths, there’s no space to walk. Vehicles are parked along both sides of the road. All the smaller lanes connecting FC Road are now bearing the brunt of the beautification work on FC Road,” he added.Paranjape also apprehended another problem arising out of the changes on FC Road. “Once the development work extends towards Goodluck chowk, people will start parking their vehicles in the connecting lanes.”Jack Doley, a security guard at an ATM on the Venus lane, said. “I see vehicles crawling along the lane. Sometimes, the snarls continue for nearly an hour as the motorists and bikers struggle to take a turn from the lane towards FC Road. The situation worsens when people enter the lane from FC Road in violation of the no-entry norm.”Suresh Karve, a resident of Apte Road, said, “There was no need to change the design of FC Road or reduce the width of its carriageway. The situation on the connecting lanes is bad. Traffic load on Apte Road has increased like never before. There are schools and several wedding halls along the road and parking of vehicles by these buildings is rampant. I wonder if there are adequate police to control traffic in these lanes.”

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