As technical experts say the options suggested by Ganesh Mandals for a metro rail bridge over the Chhatrapati Sambhaji Bridge in the Deccan are impractical, the Pune Metro has resumed its work on the site without making any changes to its previous plan.
a few months ago, some Representatives of Ganesh Mandal staged a sit-in at the construction site of the elevated route and forced the Pune Metro to suspend its work.
The elevated route from Vanaj to Ramwadi enters the Mutha river bed after Garware College Bridge station and continues to Shivajinagar godown crossing four river bridges including the Sambhaji bridge. Pillars have been erected on the river bed and slabs are being laid on it for the Metro. Steel girdles will be used to connect the pillar slabs over the river bridges.
The Ganesh Mandal immersion procession passes through the Sambhaji bridge. Mandal was opposing the high road, which intersects the Sambhaji bridge in the Deccan, saying that its low height would hinder the immersion procession. They demanded to increase the height of the elevated route or mobile structure over the Sambhaji Bridge. Mayor Murlidhar Mohol had to intervene and instruct the Pune Metro to suspend the work till further discussion on the issue.
The Mayor held several meetings with Pune Metro officials, technical experts and representatives of Ganesh Mandals. “Two alternative solutions were proposed for the mobile infrastructure of the elevated route, but technical experts turned them down, saying they were impractical,” Mohol said. Ganesh Mandal raised the issue
The first solution involved dismantling and rebuilding 39 pillars of the elevated route, but this would increase the cost of the project by Rs 70 crore while the work would take another 24 months to complete. Another measure was to demolish and rebuild the 17 pillars, which would increase the project cost by Rs 23 crore and construction time by 18 months.
Considering all the options, the Mayor said that the current plan of the elevated metro rail route is the best, so the Pune Metro Rail was allowed to continue the work.
He said, ‘It is everyone’s responsibility to continue the tradition with development works. The city has a rich tradition of Ganesh Utsav and is always celebrated to acknowledge the changes in the society. The representatives of Ganesh Mandal will accept the change in the city due to development works.
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