PUNE: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is considering extending the under-construction flyover on the Katraj-Kondhwa road by about 150 metres to overcome land acquisition hurdles.The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is constructing the flyover at Katraj Chowk. The PMC officials said that they would hold talks with NHAI to check if the flyover can be extended by 100 to 150 meters. This would help expedite the work as the administration would not have to wait to acquire land, the officials said.Regular users of Katraj-Kondhwa Road have been demanding that the administration complete the widening of this crucial road stretch to reduce frequent traffic congestion. They said that the road was not safe for travel due to incomplete work and chaotic traffic.Local residents recently held an agitation demanding that the local traffic police stop plying heavy vehicles on the stretch following fatal accidents. Rajesh Ghule, a local resident, said that the PMC has been able to start road widening work only on a few stretches. The widening has not been started at locations where landowners have not handed over the plots to the PMC. This haphazard widening of the road in patches has not helped in resolving traffic chaos as the bottlenecks near the chowks and junctions have remained, Ghule said. The civic administration has sought Rs200 crore from the state government to compensate landowners.We are expecting allocation of funds in the next few months. The government has sought a demand letter from the PMC for the same. We have not stopped the road-widening work. Our teams are holding talks with the landowners. A meeting with the landowners is scheduled next week at the PMC headquarters. We are hopeful of reaching a positive breakthrough, an official said. District guardian minister Chandrakant Patil has told the traffic police and the PMC to deploy more wardens on Katraj-Kondhwa Road to manage traffic. He has also instructed the civic administration to expedite talks with landowners and acquire land needed for road widening.District guardian minister Chandrakanat Patil recently told the civic administration and police to deploy 175 wardens to streamline traffic, besides installing blinkers, rumblers and marking of zebra crossings as part of safety measures. The stretch has been facing frequent traffic jams because of the slow road-widening work. The widening has been delayed because the PMC has not been able to acquire the required land for road work. Patil told the authorities to expedite the work and take landowners and citizens into confidence for acquisition of land.

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