Although Pune has been hailed as an IT hub, the ‘Oxford of the East’ and a haven for people after retirement, the infrastructure of the city is not one that makes the citizens proud. This can be seen in the apathy of the civic officials towards the traffic situation in the Rajiv Gandhi Hinjewadi Park. The potholes on the roads and the traffic jams make the roads very unsafe for the commuters.

In the past few years, many companies have come up in the Rajiv Gandhi Infotech Park which led to an increase in the employment opportunities in the area. However, the traffic situation and the condition of the roads in the area have been neglected by the civic officials. Fed up of this state of affairs, hundreds of IT professionals have now started signing an online petition to appeal the MP Supriya Sule to take prompt action in the concerned matter, as the IT Park falls in her constituency. The petition has been signed by over 2200 professionals so far.

The commuters have become fed up of the innumerable potholes, encroachments and absence of traffic signals on many road junctions. There are very few entry and exit points in the IT Park for commuters who come from various parts of the city. This creates frequent traffic jams and also makes the people prone to accidents. People want the officials to find an alternative for all this.

Mrityunjay Singh the head of the Hinjewadi Industries Association informed that, “There are many issues like potholes and damaged roads, which we are trying to solve through Hinjewadi First initiative. The association is trying to find alternative routes for IT professionals so the pressure would reduce on the road heading to Wakad from Shivaji chowk. The road needs to be repaired on priority basis. A meeting with Supriya Sule would be organized soon to address the issue.”

Because the IT Park is not well connected with the public transport, people prefer to commute by private vehicle. This leads to an increase in the traffic during the peak hours; and their woes are added by the heavy vehicles that ply on the roads. The professionals want the officials to look into the matter and take immediate action.

Smita Jain, an IT professional said, “Our problems become worse during the rainy season; the potholes increase in number and we are very prone to accidents because of water clogging.” She added that because of this it is very difficult to drive on such roads. Many professionals wonder why such a “high profile IT park does not have good roads and nobody seems to care about it.” It is very unfortunate for an IT Park to have such a poor infrastructure that provides employment to more than one lakh IT professionals and where business worth billions of dollars takes place.