The plebeians will write much about yesterday’s traffic imbroglio. So, I am also adding my two cents for whatever it is worth. To summarize, I understood the exact meaning of what Radio Bayern meant by Sechszehn Kilometer Stau on A73 Richtung Bamberg!
Sixteen kilometer is the distance I have to travel from my home to office – thanks to Pune Municipality’s diversions. To complete the work of flyovers in University area before the monsoon, they decided to close some roads. This means, you cannot go to the University from Baner Road or Pashan Road. From Pashan Road, you can only take left to Abhimaanshree and then left on Baner Road, towards Aundh-ITI Road. Now, if this were all planned and explained properly, with road signs and all, it would have been simpler. But the traffic police do not believe in convenience of the plebeians.
The Pune traffic has become the ugly Lernaean Hydra with its multiple monstrous heads spewing fire and poison, chop off one head and out pops the other spewing more venom. Unfortunately, we have neither Hercules nor Iolaus to take care of this hydra.
As always, I turned on left on the Baner Road and had to stop in my tracks for the road was closed ahead but no signs anywhere. U-turn later, the traffic came to halt again and it took me one hour and ten minutes to cover 2.5 km distance, so bad was the volume. No one was prepared to handle the volume. 16 kilometers later, I was so tired that my knee was hurting and leg sore. And many people claimed that I must be really ill – for I did not look good to them, such was the ordeal of the morning.
Just a little bit of sense had returned to the traffic today. But this ordeal is to continue till the flyover construction is complete. And I can only hope and pray….
