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TOI : PUNE: Forty-two people were arrested for allegedly driving in an inebriated condition and around 135 trucks were seized for overloading on highways on Wednesday night, soon after the Pune rural police launched a campaign.

The drive was conducted at six points of Urse toll junction, Somatne phata, Kavdipar toll junction, Ranjangaon toll junction, Khed toll junction and Khed Shivapur. Hotels and dhabas illegally selling liquor were also warned by the police.

The campaign has been launched in view of the increasing number of fatal accidents in Pune district.

TOI reported on Thursday that road accidents claim three lives every day in the district.

During the drive, erring motorists will be nailed down at two locations on each of the five highways to Nashik, Mumbai old highway, Mumbai-Pune expressway, Ahmednagar, Solapur and Kolhapur in the coming days.

District superintendent of police Vishwas Nangre-Patil and addi-tional superintendent of police Ashok Morale took part in the drive.

The police have requested the regional transport office (RTO) and the revenue department to collect fines from truck owners under the sections of overloading.

Nangre-Patil said the fines on trucks may go up to 20,000 under the fine provisions of both the offices…More

TOI : PUNE: The state government has formally issued a notification for collection of toll on the 32-km stretch of the Paud road from Chandni Chowk to Paud.

According to the notification, the toll collection will start with immediate effect. Residents of Bavdhan Khurd are, however, upset over the location of the toll plaza and say they would have to pay regular toll for travelling short distances.

While two-wheelers and three-wheeler rickshaws have been exempted from the toll, all other vehicles including cars, jeeps, six-seater rickshaws, trucks, trailers and other heavy vehicles will have to pay toll.

Incidentally, toll charges will go up by nearly 20 to 25 per cent from January 1, 2009. The notification has listed the toll rates for 2008 as well as for the first four months of the next year. Toll would be collected for a period of seven years.

A ten per cent concession will be given to persons taking 50 toll coupons in advance. Similarly, a 20 per cent concession will be given if 100 coupons are purchased in advance. Rates of a monthly pass will be 50 times of the one-way travel rate. For example, while the daily (two-way) toll will be Rs 30 for a car, the monthly pass will be Rs 750.

Incidentally, cars of VIPs, MPs and MLAs, defence and police department vehicles, ambulances, hearses and fire-fighting vehicles have been exempted from the toll.

Paud road has heavy traffic as it provides a link to the Pirangut industrial estate and also several tourist spots such as Mulshi dam, Tamhini Ghat and various destinations in the Konkan region.

However, the construction of the road was done primarily for the Lavasa Lake city project. The road is considered to be ideal in all aspects as it has been done as per the standards of…More

TOI : PUNE: Consider this: In 1997, 50 staff at the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) monitored the pollution levels in Pune region. Today, even after all the industrial growth and a host of regulations pertaining to the environment laid down by the government, there are still the same number of staff doing the job.

With industrially rich areas like Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad in addition to Satara and Solapur falling under the MPCB, Pune region’s jurisdiction, it is an uphill task for such a small number employees to ensure the implementation of various environment legislations.

On the one hand, Pune is struggling to fight pollution and, on the other, the MPCB is struggling to increase its staff.

While there were 8,208 industries in the region as on March 31, 2007, the number has increased to around 12,000 within a year. It is not only the number, but giants like General Motors, Volkswagen and Mahindra and Mahindra are setting up base near Pune, increasing the sphere of work.

Ten years ago, the MPCB had to ensure that the industries were complying with Water and Air (Prevention and Control of pollution) Act. Over the years, it had to implement Biomedical Waste (M&H) Rules, 1998; Hazardous Waste (M&H) Rules, 2000; and Municipal Solid Waste Rules, 2000…More

TOI : PUNE: Railway crossings in the city, especially the ones in Ghorpadi, provide harrowing experiences to those who are forced to cross them daily because of the long waits involved when the gates are down as also the inevitable traffic jams. The unfortunate part is that there is no immediate solution in sight.

At 6.15 pm, the traffic across the railway crossing near Anant Theatre in Ghorpadi flows smoothly. Three minutes later, after the bars have been lowered on both sides of the track to allow a train to pass by, the situation is nothing less than chaotic. Vehicles pile up on either side and when the bars are raised, the frantic push to get ahead creates a traffic jam. It calls for four police constables to restore order.

“This,” says Raju Dashrath, on duty in the railway crossing cabin, “is a common enough sight that is repeated at least up to 20 times a day.”

Less than a kilometre ahead, near the Babasaheb Ambedkar Nagar in Ghorpadi, is another railway crossing. While the first one is for trains plying on the Daund line that go towards Solapur and Manmad, the second one is the Miraj line with trains proceeding to or coming from Sangli, Kolhapur, Bangalore, etc. Here too, it’s the same story.

“Over the past two to three years, ever since people residing in localities like Kalyaninagar, Kharadi, Keshavnagar or B.T. Kawade road have started using this route as a short cut to Camp or Pune station, the density of traffic has turned worrisome. That apart, the peak hours are the worst, especially when the employees of companies like Bharat Forge or Siporex have to commute across the tracks,” informs Bhimrao Mahadev, the operator in the railway cabin.

The solution to ease this problem, as the residents of Ghorpadi point out, is that both…More

TOI : PUNE: With the decks being cleared for more police stations in the city, come Republic Day, the city will see seven new police stations being added to the present list of 21 police stations.

Confirming the state government’s notification, police commissioner Jayant Umranikar said they had received a notification to this effect a day ago. Work pertaining to segregating records and creating posts had already started.

“We had started makeshift arrangements, anticipating the notification. With the notification in place, we will finalise maps of the jurisdictions of the new police stations, which will be done in a day or two. We were waiting for the state government to issue the area of delimitations to us,” Umranikar said.

The proposal of issuing a notification on the jurisdiction was pending before the government since July 26, 2007. The city police had sent a proposal for seven police stations in view of the increase in crime rate and rapid urbanisation.

The new police stations will be opened at Warje-Malwadi that has been separated from the Kothrud police station; Shivajinagar, taken out from Deccan; Dattawadi from Swargate; Airport from Yerawada; Kondhwa from Wanowrie; Chinchwad from Nigdi and Sangvi from the Chattushrungi police station.

Umranikar said they have places to start the police stations at Shivajinagar, Warje-Malwadi, Dattawadi and Sangvi. “For the Chinchwad police station, we have requested a location to the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, which has assured to co-operated with us in the matter,” he said.

The Kondhwa police station will temporarily come up at a building, where the Hadapsar police chowky was existing earlier. “We have not found a good place in Kondhwa yet,” Umranikar said…More