Link Road Tender

The floating of tender for the 36M DP road outside Whispering Wind is both a good news and bad. If pmc has its way, its going to be a nightmare for residents of buildings directly on this road. pmc contractors are notorious for delaying road projects. News and photos of work on Baner rd, Karve rd, Paud rd, etc. appearing in various newspapers over the past one year sends a chill down the spine when one recalls the horrific condition of roads under construction and post-comlpetion.

Telephone cables are disrupted, exits and entrance to buildings becomes a problem due to changes in levels of internal and the road being constructed.
The alarm bell for Whispering Wind is its being on the downstream side of the road which invites rainwater, dust, dirt, etc, from the elevated road inside the building premises.

The proposed total duration for this project is 12 months and upon comlpetion this road would be wider than Baner road which is 30M. The road should appear a bit like the Sus road between balaji mandir chowk to sai chowk.

Part of the tender that appeared in 'Sakaal' dt. 23-July-2009 is below:

(click for larger view)

The tender describes the DP road as 36M DP road between 'Pashan Sus rd' and 'the boundary between Pashan and Baner' which is the road near Rolling Hills.

Part of Baner DP map downloaded from pmc website is shown below. This map shows the Pashan-Baner link road as the boundary between Pashan and Baner.

So the road for which tender is floated seems to be the one marked in green below.

The tender will be opened on 7-Aug-2009 and since this will be done using money take from our pockets, following are our tasks as alert citizens:

• Keep close eye on which company is assigned the contract.

• Check the past expertise and past experience of this company in the area of road development.

• Check the credentials and past performance of the company.

• Check if this company was black listed for non-performance, etc. PMC is known to have assigned projects to such companies in the recent past.

• Keep continuous touch with supervising pmc officials and seek updates on the progress of the project.

• Work with company and pmc officials to ensure that road work does not cause any inconvenience to residents for commuting in and out of Whispering Wind.

• Intervene and demand for proper foothpath, road-divider, speed breakers, plantation, cycle-track and storm water pipeline.

But, given the perpetual apathy and ignorance of WW residents this seems only a pipe-dream, with no pun intended ;-)