Yesterday the foundation stone was laid for proposed interchange at Chandani Chowk junction in Pune, India. We all have apprehensions about appropriateness of the scheme.
My friend Yogesh Dandekar has written very appropriately about the proposed scheme and issues that are apparently left unaddressed.
Sharing his thoughts in his own words:
Open letter to the Honourable minister
We are making improvements to one of the major junctions which is a very busy entry on the west of Pune. Located on the heavily used NH4, part of the golden quandrangle.
The highway without doubt has to have smooth passage and should have the least obstruction. The new flyover or interchange to be developed would definitely be a boon for the vehicles. Hopefully the 5 major roads (in fact there are 6 — one going to an institute of National importance-NDA) would have stopping less and signal less movement.
Having used the junction for many years, I would like to get your attention to some of the other points which need attention.
Probably the accidents have happened not because of vehicle moving, because there is a mixed use beyond vehicles.
I have just now seen the video at the foundation stone laying ceremony explaining how the traffic will move.
As designers and thinkers who see every piece of public design intervention in the city to be done keeping people at Center of the design.
Hopefully these have been thought about during the design. Some visualisation shared in the news papers were short of explaining the actual design. The diagram in the news paper is not giving a correct explanation. And the reason to be skeptical is Pune’s history of building incorrect flyovers with a very short term vision.
Interchange does not mean only for smooth flow of traffic/vehicles. This is possible for a remote crossing of two highways where there is no city/settlement next to it.
Such an interchange means exchange of multiple modes of transport. A bus going from Mumbai to Bangalore can drop a family of 4 at this point and the next part of their journey will happen by an auto or taxi or someone coming to pick up. Has this been thought about? You may like it or not? People are going to use the location in this manner whether you allow it or don’t. Get the roads done, open the flyovers and you will see people walking in the extreme left or right of the road with their heavy bags, kids and fearing the high speed vehicles. We can see this happening on the Pune Mumbai expressway at Kalamboli junction. Then why don’t we provide for the facilities. It’s a great interchange for long distance ST buses to avoid coming to the city Center and adding to the congestion. Many buses actually drop/ pick up passengers here.
In such large developments we miss out on one important factor. Pedestrian movement. There are going to be a number of people negotiating this interchange on foot. The reason can be the previous observation or even changing a PMPML bus. The why not make it safe and comfortable. I use this place as an interchange to take a bus for Mulshi. How will I walk? People should be able to reach multiple points without negotiating the traffic which is now going to become more fast and ruthless as it has the right of way.
The Kothrud depot is just 1.2 km from Chandni Chowk. Can busses be extended till Chandni Chowk which can become a great connection to the buses plying on highway. This is in line with the larger idea of radial roads connected to the planned ring- road. This will become the fastest way for people using bus to reach Katraj on one end or Pimpri Chinchwad on the other end.
Ideally the master planning should keep provision for a metro station which can be easily built by extending the metro line 2 of Pune metro and the line can go further. Don’t build the metro now, but a site contours can be very well exploited to create make provision and a good interchanged for the future. If a metro station is built, it will be the best point for interchange from a highway to a MRT system in the the city.
Cycling in now being promoted. A dedicated cycle lane should be provided.
I completely agree and believe that such projects after implementation need stringent regulation.
Regulation is the critical aspect of this interchange to work as it starts operations. My suggestion is NOT to make it into a destination with shops / eateries. It only has to be a super efficient interchange. DONT provide any parking. Keep limited slots for autos and taxies l, and give very functional shelter for the bus passengers wanting to change the buses for onward journey to far-off destination or to travel towards a location inside the city. Any activity which encourages long duration halts including parking should be discouraged. There will be a few small convenience shops which are essential for items like fast food, tea, water, magazines and also make these destinations safer having an ubiquitous human presence.
Imagine a old lady trying to come from one bus and walking towards the rickshaw stand does not have to negotiate lots of steps and even probably uses a lift to change levels. A IT employee can report to the designated pickup point for long distance buses for Bangalore pulling his stroller heading home for Diwali vacation. A person coming from Mumbai can book a cab which can report at a designated point which are duly signed and marked. A professional for a business visit to Mumbai, is dropped by his brother early in the morning at 6:00 am. The ST ticket conductor and controller would have better place to work. I have used the ST stop on the highway. It lacks basic hygiene the conductor himself or herself (yes there are very gutsy young lady conductors who ensure passengers get right buses at 6:00 am in the morning.)
Currently there are no public toilets at the bus pickup points. And people have no choice but to go out in the open.
There could be a concern on how to get space for all these activities. Ideally such planning should have happened long time ago. In fact, the spaces around the junction started getting developed into large societies and residential development as soon as this redevelopment was announced. The access roads to these plush gated communities would create another challenge to a smooth traffic. Has this been thought through.
And finally Pune roads specially flyovers have an habit of putting direction signs exactly where the road splits. It’s ok for pedestrians not for vehicles. We should min have 3 signs before reaching the decision making point. This is critical for a smooth flow. There is a science to this and not governed by some engineers act of tick-marking a checklist to include signage in the overall project implementation.
The wish list can be a long one and if we sit together priorities can be set and a design can be done, but I am hopeful the infrastructure development would not have a blind eye to many of the points above which are genuine requirements as people would start using it as per their convenience. Look at any uncontrolled infrastructure project.
An auto rickshaw will stop on the roads looking for passengers, a bus dropping passengers will halt the traffic, people getting down from the bus would be getting killed under the speedy vehicles, bus stops which are actually official pickup points would be as dirty and filthy as they are entirely neglected.
We only see vehicle congestion. But fail to see how people use it and design it accordingly. Design thinking has the power.
The entire interchange should be monitored using cameras. There will be clear signing, city map and information of the connecting bus routes, clearly identified auto / taxi pickup points and designated areas for bus drop-off and pickup.
This is not just an interchange for vehicles to smoothly move with speed. This is a real interchange for people. Let’s design and built it that way.
