This is an open letter to the Maharashtra Government or any top authority in Pune!

Sir / Madam,

This is the story of the way two roads have been relaid or are being relaid as we speak in Pune. One is the Pashan – University Circle linking road while the other is the road which links Symbiosis International University at Lavale to the rest of the city. So what’s so special about relaying roads? Aren’t they done very frequently because of rains and a variety of other reasons? Yes there is something special about these roads. Or so to say something special which I have noticed. It may have happened before too. But then its not everyday you see such things.

Both these roads were relaid during peak hours that is the morning and the afternoon. The Lavale road whose size is equal to two lanes of the Pashan road is almost like a dirt track looking like a road while the one at Pashan is a proper track. But I saw both being relaid in the same day. What was the problem? Both seemed ok, not too bad to re-lay. But then I thought if this makes it a good track to drive on, then it should be pretty good.

But then interestingly problems kept happening. Since the work was being done during the peak hours, there were huge queues of vehicles on the Pashan road. While the Lavale road doesn’t face much traffic, the re-laying made it a one – track disaster. Imagine the smallest of roads which has traffic more in the form of buses and trucks becoming a one track pass. It was completely and incessantly crazy. On the other hand the Pashan one had the same issue as people couldn’t move either side. And thus in both cases people had to go over relaid tar which I don’t think is the right thing for one’s vehicle. The work on Pashan road was done by that evening. But the other one has been still continuing for the past week.

My questions are many in number. Why is the road being relaid all of a sudden when it is pretty ok and functioning well? Why is the re-laying work happening in the day and not night when there is minimum traffic? Why has the relaying work in the Lavale road case been going on from so many days despite the fact that all of us know the kind of traffic people face there? Why is the entire process of relaying done so shoddily?

I had heard of such incidents occurring really freely in India. And now having seen it by my own eyes I can see the shoddy work by which even basic things like relaying road happens in India! Makes me really think that because of such simple reasons we are simply not capable of leading the world!

A true blue Indian