Pune: Sadhu Vaswani ROB to be demolished after Lok Sabha polls

The PMC had started preliminary work on Sadhu Vaswani ROB in the first week of March after opening the new Ghorpadi ROB. It was planning to close Sadhu Vaswani ROB for traffic in the second week of March but that did not happen.

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has decided to carry out the demolition work of Sadhu Vaswani Railway Overbridge (ROB) after the Lok Sabha (LS) elections as the Pune traffic police department is not giving permission to demolish the ROB at present.

The Sadhu Vaswani ROB is still open for one-way traffic from Pune Cantonment to Koregaon Park. As per the PMC schedule, Sadhu Vaswani ROB was supposed to be demolished in the first week of March but that did not happen as the traffic diversion plan did not succeed in regulating the traffic.

The executive engineer, PMC project department, said, “The traffic police are not giving permission to demolish Sadhu Vaswani ROB by stopping traffic on it. It will now be possible for us to demolish the ROB only after LS polls are over.” Closure of Sadhu Vaswani ROB will impact traffic at Nagar Road, Koregaon Park, Bund Garden, Council Hall and Morwada.

A traffic police official said, “We were waiting for the Class 10 and 12 board exams to end. Thereafter, we were going to close Sadhu Vaswani ROB for traffic. Now due to the LS elections, it is looking difficult to close the ROB for traffic and allow it to be demolished. Normally, the Pune LS constituency counting is supposed to be carried out in the Food Corporation of India (FCI) godown at Koregaon Park. Therefore, it is very difficult to close the ROB during the election period as there are chances of creating traffic chaos and law and order problems.”

Initially, the PMC had thought of fixing the old flyover due to traffic issues. In February 2021, the civic body hired a consultant to check if the bridge could be strengthened instead of bringing it down. After the consultant’s report, the PMC took the decision to demolish the old flyover and build a new one in its place.

The new ROB is estimated to cost ₹83 crore, with a proposed length of 640 meters and an overall width of 17.150 meters. The bridge will stand at a height of 6.90 meters and is expected to be completed in two-and-a-half years. The PMC standing committee last year approved the proposal to construct the new ROB by demolishing the old one.