Access Road A Trap For Sopanbaug Society

Pune: Nearly 300 residents of Anika Essentia society in the Tarabaug locality of Sopanbaug feel trapped in their own homes for most of the year. The situation becomes much worse for several weeks during the entire rainy season, or even whenever there are heavy unseasonal showers.The reason? Their only access road turns into a muddy swamp with constant ankle-deep waterlogging. In the absence of a motorable route, residents are forced to wade through five to six-inch high mud for the simplest of shopping activities, and not a single delivery agent is willing to come to their complex. Even in the absence of rain, the road is a mess to navigate, riddled with construction overflow and severely damaged by heavy vehicles. Society resident Sandhan Mishra told TOI, "There used to be a road here initially, but rampant construction, heavy vehicle movement and total lack of maintenance has left it badly damaged. Mud excavated from ongoing construction projects is often left on the roadside and rain exacerbates the problem. There is a bitumen road somewhere under these piles of sludge." "In the monsoon, we can't help but feel caged. Using a two-wheeler is out of the question and even small cars get stuck. Unless you have an SUV or are happy to splash through accumulated water, you simply can't leave your house in the rainy season. Even ambulances or other emergency vehicles would have trouble reaching our building. School buses, taxis and autos refuse, too. Life almost comes to a standstill for us," Mishra added. According to him, civic infrastructure has failed the residents. "The biggest issue is that there is no proper drainage here, so the water has nowhere to go. Homeowners have invested a lot of money to buy houses in this prime area. But civic amenities do not match up. In the monsoon of 2025, a huge excavator vehicle almost toppled because of the mud, and the road was blocked for over five hours. If such a powerful machine can't navigate this stretch, what hope do we have? This is our only access road," he said. The Tarabaug approach road is an arterial route branching off from AV Moodliar Road in Sopanbaug, ranging from Clover Belvedere Society to Mahindra L'Artista and then Casa Verde. Its severely damaged condition is evident. The worst patch is alongside the railway line, to the left of Mahindra L'Artista up to Anika Essentia, where heavy excavation has made the route almost unusable. Residents pointed out that even an hour of rain renders the stretch unusable for two to three days at least. Yogesh Pitale, another society resident, said, "There are around 70 households in Anika Essentia and all are 100% reliant on the patch parallel to the railway line to access the city. There are three more constructions ongoing on this stretch at present, which means a lot more people will have to use it soon. But two-wheelers cannot use it at all during the monsoon, and the sharp turns make it very risky for four-wheelers as well." Pointing out the impact on their life, he said, "The staff we employ, be it house help or other workers who visit the society regularly, find it difficult to navigate this road when it rains. It is also increasing our vehicle maintenance costs as our tyres wear out prematurely due to continuous friction and overuse of mudguards." Pitale, a project manager in an MNC, added, "A new tar road was laid in the neighbourhood a couple of months ago, but stops a few metres away from this stretch. Why was the work not done for the whole road, or at least where it mattered the most?" The mud from here travels to other roads in the neighbourhood with the help of big vehicles. "The disrepair of the area's roads in general — in addition to the one that goes from Tarabaug to our society, all the way up to the railway line — is utterly dismal. You can't even call it a road anymore," said Meher Venkatraman, a resident of Empress Court, another society in the vicinity of Anika Essentia. "It is unfortunate that civic authorities are planning Sopanbaug and the city at large in such a haphazard manner. We see buildings with staircases opening out onto the main road, and constructions with not enough parking space, leading all the vehicles to be parked in roads, narrowing their carriageway width even more. How are building permissions even being given? The nullah here is also blocked by encroachments, but no action has been taken. Instead, new projects continue to pop up every other month," Venkatraman added. Residents said they have repeatedly raised complaints with Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) since the monsoon last year, but they are closed online without a resolution each time. Their first complaint was made to the district collector and local PMC ward office in Aug 2025. Thereafter, more complaints were made online, in person and via email to various civic officials and engineers, but in vain. "When the complaint is raised on the PMC Care App, a junior engineer is appointed. They usually give us the same line, saying the matter has been escalated to senior officials, whose approval is pending to get on-ground work done. We don't know whom to approach anymore. We also spoke to corporators, but they have also provided no clarity. We cannot spend another rainy season without a motorable access road," Pitale told TOI. Most recently on May 4 this year, residents wrote to authorities once again, including the collector and senior PMC officials. They questioned the visible inaction and enquired about the status of the work and their complaints. Mishra said, "Unfortunately, most officials are not even aware whose job it is to fix the road. They just keep passing the buck from one department to another or to builders, who have ongoing projects in the area. It is already mid-May, but our hope is still that PMC gets the work done before the monsoon starts. Once it does, there will be no window to get work done." Several societies across the area are grappling with connected issues. Sachin Khandewal, convenor of the Sopanbaug Residents Association (SOBARA), said, "For the last many years, residents here have suffered because of the terrible condition of this road. Despite repeated complaints, temporary patchwork is done and the problem returns within weeks. Citizens are simply asking for a durable and permanent solution, not short-term fixes." Officials Speak I visited the spot on Tuesday with residents. They told me about the issues they face. It is a small road and I have asked a junior engineer with the ward office to temporarily fix it as maintenance is now under the purview of ward offices. However, the work will happen only if the ward office already has an agency on board. If not, something else will have to be thought of as a temporary solution. Proper work will happen only once the tender is passed and will most likely start in Oct — Aarti Patil | Junior engineer, road department, PMCThe residents did approach me about this issue and I am aware of the situation. We have got a budget approved to fix this road this year and resolve the problem once and for all, but the tender process for that will take time. I have written to the ward office for some temporary fixes in the meantime. Once proper work is done, the road will stay good for the next five to six years, without any trouble. But it is true that something needs to be done as a precautionary measure before this monsoon. I will follow up with the ward office for the same — Prashant Jagtap | Corporator