Pune: Deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde, while speaking at an event here on Friday, said that the poor quality of roads has a far-reaching impact on the image of a city, highlighting that it also affects the growth of its economy.Shinde added that one of the first decisions he had made after becoming CM in 2022 was to make Mumbai free of potholes. “As the country’s financial capital, Mumbai hosts global investors, and the image of the city gets maligned if infrastructure is not proper,” he said.Shinde was in Pune on Friday to attend the general body meeting of the real estate body, Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (Credai).Addressing the gathering at the same event, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) commissioner Naval Kishore Ram also admitted that traffic issues in the city have now escalated significantly against the backdrop of road issues.“There are over 30-35 major projects in the city that are leading to traffic congestion. Around 33% of roads in the city, which carry 80% of the traffic, are affected as some work or other is going on throughout the year,” Ram pointed out.Similarly addressing the matter of road infrastructure, Shinde cited the example of the US, adding that the country became rich on the back of its high-quality road network. “State govt is working on building a remote access control grid to improve the transport sector, which will allow reaching any part of the state in eight hours,” he said.Elaborating on the Pune connection, he said, “The city’s economy got a boost after the construction of the Mumbai-Pune Expressway improved connectivity, as the IT and automobile industry saw a growth spurt because travel time between the two cities reduced drastically. It also led to a real estate boom here.”Incidentally, the IT Park in Hinjewadi has long struggled with poor roads, and in the past, industry representatives have lamented about global executives visiting this zone and expressing concern about the poor quality of infrastructure.The deputy CM also mentioned that he will look into some infrastructure-related problems in the city, such as expediting the scrapped development plan (DP) proposed by Pune Metropolitan Region Development Area (PMRDA), traffic issues, and homes built inside the flood lines.Meanwhile, Ram further said PMC will take strict action on encroachment. “The civic administration has identified 10-12 chronic waste spots in the city. Garbage accumulates at these spots in no time, even after the corporation has cleared it,” he said.At the event, Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) commissioner Shekhar Singh said that all stakeholders, including govt agencies and developers, need to look at issues such as water availability and air pollution. “While the real estate sector has taken some efforts towards mitigating air pollution, construction in the city is one of the major contributors to this kind of pollution, besides emissions by vehicles,” he said.Commenting on real estate reforms, Pune collector Jitendra Dudi told the gathering, “The district administration is taking steps such as digitisation of revenue records to ease the red tape for the sector.”In his speech, Shinde also proposed that Pune should get an online portal for transferable development rights (TDR) on the lines operated in Mumbai, which will further bring transparency to the real estate sector. Pune: Deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde, while speaking at an event here on Friday, said that the poor quality of roads has a far-reaching impact on the image of a city, highlighting that it also affects the growth of its economy.Shinde added that one of the first decisions he had made after becoming CM in 2022 was to make Mumbai free of potholes. “As the country’s financial capital, Mumbai hosts global investors, and the image of the city gets maligned if infrastructure is not proper,” he said.Shinde was in Pune on Friday to attend the general body meeting of the real estate body, Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (Credai).Addressing the gathering at the same event, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) commissioner Naval Kishore Ram also admitted that traffic issues in the city have now escalated significantly against the backdrop of road issues.“There are over 30-35 major projects in the city that are leading to traffic congestion. Around 33% of roads in the city, which carry 80% of the traffic, are affected as some work or other is going on throughout the year,” Ram pointed out.Similarly addressing the matter of road infrastructure, Shinde cited the example of the US, adding that the country became rich on the back of its high-quality road network. “State govt is working on building a remote access control grid to improve the transport sector, which will allow reaching any part of the state in eight hours,” he said.Elaborating on the Pune connection, he said, “The city’s economy got a boost after the construction of the Mumbai-Pune Expressway improved connectivity, as the IT and automobile industry saw a growth spurt because travel time between the two cities reduced drastically. It also led to a real estate boom here.”Incidentally, the IT Park in Hinjewadi has long struggled with poor roads, and in the past, industry representatives have lamented about global executives visiting this zone and expressing concern about the poor quality of infrastructure.The deputy CM also mentioned that he will look into some infrastructure-related problems in the city, such as expediting the scrapped development plan (DP) proposed by Pune Metropolitan Region Development Area (PMRDA), traffic issues, and homes built inside the flood lines.Meanwhile, Ram further said PMC will take strict action on encroachment. “The civic administration has identified 10-12 chronic waste spots in the city. Garbage accumulates at these spots in no time, even after the corporation has cleared it,” he said.At the event, Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) commissioner Shekhar Singh said that all stakeholders, including govt agencies and developers, need to look at issues such as water availability and air pollution. “While the real estate sector has taken some efforts towards mitigating air pollution, construction in the city is one of the major contributors to this kind of pollution, besides emissions by vehicles,” he said.Commenting on real estate reforms, Pune collector Jitendra Dudi told the gathering, “The district administration is taking steps such as digitisation of revenue records to ease the red tape for the sector.”In his speech, Shinde also proposed that Pune should get an online portal for transferable development rights (TDR) on the lines operated in Mumbai, which will further bring transparency to the real estate sector.
