Team-BHP - Whats up with Pune Roads?

The roads in Pune are really REALLY bad.

The SMS doing the rounds there is,

" In India we drive on the left side of the road,
But in Pune we drive on what is left of the road."

Coupled with the bad roads at the Mumbai end, it has become common now to take about 5 hours for the Mumbai - Trip as against the usual 3 hrs before.

Venkat

There is absolutely no comparison between Pune and Mumbai roads. Pune roads are quite simply the worst you can find amongst all modern urban areas.
The other day, (I was going to start a thread on this), I had a fall from my bike because of one such shoddily maintained road. I was going at about 20-30 kmph from the left side of the road, where most of the gravel swept away by the rains tends to accumulate. Suddenly, the Splendor guy in front of me decided to stop. I tried to brake hard, but the combination of (lots of) loose gravel and disc brakes and evasive action from the guy made my bike lock up its wheels and me going into a skid. I ended up hitting the guy from the back and falling down :(. Had a broken indicator, and still have a rattly fairing and a squeaky fork.
Paud Road (where I live) has formed wavy roads on the stretch opposite Krishna Hospital. Karve road is forever dug up. Heck, the roads and their faults could be almost as big as the Sultan's list.
Some of the innovative methods PMC uses for filling up roads are :
- With bricks.
- Plain mud.
- Dumping gravel.
At the slightest hint of a rainfall, the roads are again reduced to a muddy/gravelly mess. Rajaram Bridge (which connects Sinhgad Road) was all red due to the bricks. The rains later washed off all that ofcourse.

On a recent trip to Pune I was feeling like I was in another bangalore as far as the roads were concerned.
The problem is the dept involved in these activities are a full of nutcases. I once had an encounter with an Asst Engineer who was responsible for constructing drains near an intersection just before the road laying work was going to commence. The road width was 30 ft and the time taken to construct the drain was 2 months. After completion the drain hieght relative to the road was close to 3.5 ft and vehicles turning into the lane had to climb over this mountain to get to the other side.Chaos!
So I asked the engineer what his logic was behind the design. He says that they are planning for the future and that some day the road hieght would increase due to constant road laying this design takes that into account (ridiculous). Next was the question about taking two months to build a drain and using conventional and outdated construction methods when he could have used pre-fabricated drains and just had them placed. For that he replied that he was a qualified civil engineer (claimed to have passed out in the 70's) and knew very well that the newer technologies in constructions were just nonsense and would not stand a chance against the way he had built the drain. I decided to just stop talking to him and turned around!

With these kinda idiots how can one expect any improvement?!

Quote:

Originally Posted by madhav

...The road width was 30 ft and the time taken to construct the drain was 2 months. After completion the drain hieght relative to the road was close to 3.5 ft and vehicles turning into the lane had to climb over this mountain to get to the other side.Chaos!...
With these kinda idiots how can one expect any improvement?!

Which road was that? :)

Even with prefabricated units, the construction of storm water drains on Karve Road (especially the part which starts after McDonalds) is still on after more than a year of digging.

sajo,
I'm from bangalore... and the incident I mentioned is from bangalore not from Pune. I had been to Pune recently and saw the similarities with Bangalore! I was only trying to high-light how stupid these dept guys are! Guess they are as stupid in every other parts of our country

Hello,

I spend 3 days in Pune and 4 days in Mumbai. I do the trip by my own car every week. So I know how bad they are at both ends.

Pune wins hands down in terms of being bad. At some places you have to come to a stand still and ponder as to how to proceed....the pot holes are that big.

Thanks for posting the photos...but to do justice you need better resolution as well as a 3 D experience.

Every year it is the same story. I remember last year, there was a bigh hue and cry and most industrialists in Pune had bandied together to voice their collective concern. But this year around things at still the same.

Baner road is so bad....that I started using the Aundh road to come in. Ganeshkhind turned out to be a pain with all flyover and dug up roads so I started taking the Kirkee Bazar / spicer college route.

But no matter which route you take, you cannot keep these civil engineers down for long. They manage to trap you by being equally bad all over.

Venkat

The Pune roads are indeed horrible. But compared to last year, I would venture to say that they are better this year!! Also I cannot understand the concept of filling in massive potholes with sharp stones and mud. When it rains again the result is one big mess. Apparently these folks have decided that they are going to do a proper repair job only after the monsoon (maybe in November). What is happening to our tax money, if it is not available for an essential function like road repairs?

Edit: I am mighty glad that I do not have a brand new car. It would really break my heart to drive it on these roads.