Agencies  

• Citizens cut cake to highlight delay in repair of Karve Road

Pune, May 18: A citizens’ group on Thursday celebrated the inordinate delay by civic authorities to repair the city’s arterial Karve Road by cutting a road-shaped cake and ceremoniously garlanding a board announcing “work in progress”.

Repair works on the road, which connects Pune’s rapidly growing suburban population beyond the Kothrud area with the main city, have been on for the past three years despite the fact that the deadline for the project was just nine months.

Novel protest

Volunteers of citizens’ groups Sajag and Parivartan came up with the novel form of highlighting the issue. The protesters gathered in front of SNDT College on Karve Road after garlanding the Pune Municipal Corporation’s board giving details of the project.

The long and busy stretch of road has been prone to traffic jams and freak accidents due to potholes and dug-up portions that pose problems for hundreds of motorists plying on it.

Pune Mayor Rajlaxmi Bhosale said the PMC was aware of the hardship being suffered by citizens and was taking steps to speed up the work.