Katraj-Dehu Road bypass back on track, almost

PIMPRI CHINCHWAD: The forest department has finally granted National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) permission to construct a road on its land at Dukkar Khind near Warje besides two other spots in Pune.
The permission is expected to pave the way to complete the overdue Katraj-Dehu Road bypass. Once it is built, the bypass would ease the daily commute on the stretch that currently sees heavy traffic.
However, the two parties are still in talks to seal the agreement on how to deal with the ground material excavated from the site, which could include rocks and minor minerals. After the chinks are ironed out, service roads will be laid first so that construction of the highway does not affect flow of traffic. The entire process could take approximately ten months to a year.
As of now, work on approximately 1.25 hectare of forest land remains in Pune district, including portions in Kelawade and Nasrapur in Bhor taluka, besides the land in Warje, which is under the jurisdiction of Pune Municipal Corporation.
Describing the status of the project, Praful B Diwan, project director of NHAI's Pune division, said, "We have finally received permission from the forest department. However, we are still to agree on the manner in which the excavated material is to be dumped. Our concessionaire has sought an additional plot of land in a radius of not more than two kilometers from the construction site where the material can be dumped."
The concessionaire is seeking a plot nearby to make the excavation and dumping process of the project economically viable. Alternatively, the highway authority will have to pay a royalty to the forest department for taking away ground material from land that belongs to the latter, Diwan explained.
Commenting on the permission being granted, Jeet Singh, chief conservator of forests (Pune), told TOI, "Four to six months is the usual time that it takes to grant all permissions. The excavated material will certainly be dumped on our land and we will decide what to do with it as it is our property."
In July, NHAI had written to the forest department requesting to speed up the matter as it was contributing to a delay in completing the bypass, which has already overshot its deadline by a couple of years.
At the time, senior forest officials had told TOI that the delay was due to procedural issues, including some objections regarding pending clearances from the local district magistrate, gram sabha and gram panchayat, besides incomplete documentation submitted by NHAI.