Potholed short cut to IT hub leaves techies in pain

PUNE: Short cuts often trigger travails and it’s definitely the case with Nande Chande road near Hinjewadi.

Riddled with crater-like potholes, the nearly 2.5km stretch is causing much agony for nearly 40,000-odd IT professionals heading to work in and around Phase III of Rajiv Gandhi IT Park — the jewel in the city’s IT sector crown.

To make matter worse, many of them are left with backache and sprain because of driving through the

potholed

road, And if they take the main road, they reach their workplaces late.

Ever since the rains set in, the industry association has declared the road unusable. It has also directed all buses — owned by it and the companies — not to take the short cut and to ply by the usual route into the IT Park. For those unlucky on any given day, it means an additional commute time of almost 15-20 minutes just to reach office.

“It’s frustrating and painful,” said Dhanashree Jadhav, a software professional working with one of the IT majors in Hinjewadi. “I travel to Hinjewadi from Warje everyday. The drive on Nande Chande Road is the worst part of the journey, even during summers. If you happen to travel in the company bus and you get the rear seat, it means bouncing through the entire stretch. Its impossible to read or surf on one’s cellphone. Since we started using the main road, the journey time has increased by at least 15 minutes,” she said.

“Travelling in a private car or riding a bike is no better,” explains Ankit Jethani, another techie and a resident of Hinjewadi.

“I once used this road with a taxi driver. He took 25 minutes to cross the rough patch, as he drove through it extremely slowly. If you are on a bike, you run the risk of soiling your clothes. Cars passing by invariably splash the muddy, dirty water on you while maneuvering the potholes,” he said.

Jethani has already raised the issue with Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) officials and even the CM’s office on its Twitter handle. “It’s frustrating that the

MIDC

is repairing the main roads, but not this one,” he said.

Amrut Khodke, one of the founding members of

Hinjewadi Residents Welfare Association

(HIRWA), said they have been raising the issue with several departments, but did not get a favourable response from anyone.

“We don’t know whom to turn to now. There are no direct approach roads to Phase III of the IT park, where many residential colonies are located. Coming through the main road means losing hours to the traffic,” he says.

According to officials sources, the road repair issued is currently tossing around between the MIDC and the zilla parishad.

Clarifying their inability to carry out the repairs, a senior MIDC official said, “We have done it twice earlier. The last time we went there, some farmers refused to let us work. They claimed compensation for their land. We have not acquired the land so far. We are awaiting details of the ownership first before we can carry out any activity there.”

The

Hinjewadi Industries Association

is scheduled to meet the MIDC officials on Thursday to discuss the issue.