Pune: A stench has gripped the stretch between Puraniks Espanola society and Metro Jazz near Educon International School in Mhalunge, with sewage gushing out of a chamber inundating the street, leaving it slippery and making the air nearly impossible to breathe.Residents demanded immediate fix to the problem as work was already underway to dig up the road for a water pipeline. They feared that starting sewage pipeline repairs later would mean digging up the freshly laid road all over again.“Why can’t they (PMC) do everything at one go when the road is already dug up?” asked resident Anita Marathe, voicing the frustration of her neighbours.Marathe said sewage routinely streamed across the road and into Kirti Elegance society, directly opposite Educon School, precisely where students alighted from and boarded vehicles every day. “The underground water pipelines and tanks are old. What if sewage is seeping into them? Even otherwise, this is a serious health hazard. Once the monsoon arrives, the situation will turn disastrous, with waterlogging forcing people to wade through sewage. We need an immediate fix, but also a long-term solution,” she said.Metro Jazz resident Priti Kale said the problem haunted the area for the past four years. “I have officially complained multiple times to both the ward office and PMC. Each time, they clean the chamber and things are fine briefly. But the sewage is back on the road soon after. This is no longer an occasional issue, it’s a permanent one,” Kale said.She said unless an engineer investigated the root cause, the cycle of temporary fixes would never end. Repeated calls and messages to Vijay Naykal, assistant municipal commissioner and Aundh-Baner ward officer overseeing Mhalunge, remained unanswered till going to the press.
