Solution(s)

 The Mumbai traffic may not be as chaotic as the Pune traffic. In Mumbai, says everyone, drivers and riders follow the lanes. In Pune, however, discipline is something most all forget while on road. People jump signals, cut lanes, and all simultaneously want to go in all directions at smaller crossroads/intersections where there is neither a signal nor a traffic constable controlling the traffic. 

What could be the solution(s) to the traffic woes in Pune? One of the toughest problems when it comes to Pune traffic is that the nodal roads in Pune are narrow, and possibly cannot be widened. Let me give a concrete example. Look at the Tilak Road. 

One of the toughest roads to navigate is this narrow strech which cannot possibly be widened. There are any number of schools and colleges all along the route, beginning from the Abhinav Kala  College near Madiwale Colony to the New English School on one side of the road as it intersects with a lane from from the Shastri Road. 

If this simple solution, road widening, is out of question, what are the other solutions? Many many more tunnels, ring roads, two/three tier fly-overs? 

May be, the best solution would be improving the public transport. The metro, for instance, clean, on time and not expensive does have a good response, right? Even the A/C buses are preferred.

Even then, these are the dressings on the wound, right? The real problem lies in controlling the private vehicles, right? When loans are easily available and the interest rates, unlike the FD rates, are not dismal, citizens' apparent buying power knows no limits. Literally lakhs of new vehicles enter the market each year!

They say, In Pune, the number of vehicles is more than the number of citizens which, too, grows exponentially, given the internal migration from interior Maharashtra such as the Khandesh, Marathwada and Vidharbha regions.

May be, the real solution is de-urbanisation. Major industries should reach far and out, beyond the Mumbai-Navi Mumbai-Pune belt. Existing local industries in those cities/towns should be supported. Agriculture, despite all possible problems since P. Sainath listed them in the nineties, needs continued support. Such are the real solutions which are being taken up on war footing, I am absolutely sure.

Pratima@ The mindset needs a change, too. The officials must, for instance, complete all the monsoon preparations  before June. If citizens refuse to use the public transport because it is not exactly convenient, and connecting buses/autos are not easily accessible for a metro, for instance,  such solutions could be be made available with a 'win win' approach. What say?

Quote of the day:                                                        "Every problem has in it the seeds of its solutions," says P.V. Neale.

Word of the day: Decongestion                               Decongestion refers to the process of making a place less full of traffic and/or people. London, Paris, New York and other such mega-metro cities decongest by charging a heavy tax for private vehicles in the central part(s), it seems.  Fines for traffic rules' violations are very heavy, too, apparently.