Laxmi Road 'walking plaza' remains a one-day affair

PUNE: First proposed in 2011, the Pune Municipal Corporation's (PMC's) long-standing plan to convert Laxmi Road into a 'walking plaza' on weekends has seen limited progress due to inadequate traffic diversion strategies and resistance from local shop-owners.

- Siddharth Gadkari

So much so that over the past four years, the PMC has managed to implement the walking plaza concept only on an 800-metre stretch of the three-kilometre-long Laxmi Road, that too on December 11 (alone) which is observed annually as 'World Pedestrian Day'.

While the idea was to pedestrianise Laxmi Road on weekends, encouraging people to walk freely and shop without traffic disruptions, the vehicle-free zone is restricted to just one day every year (World Pedestrian Day) with no plans to extend it on weekends throughout the year.

The reason behind the limitation is the lack of alternate traffic routes and opposition from shop-owners. While PMC officials are working on traffic diversion strategies, shopkeepers are concerned about the potential impact of vehicle-free days on their business.