The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has begun flattening speed breakers in the city after discovering that most do not comply with Indian Road Congress (IRC) standards. According to the IRC, speed humps should not exceed 10cm in height to prevent vehicle damage and ensure safety.
Meanwhile, the destruction of speed breakers at various roads such as Wadgaon Sheri, Ramwadi, Yerwada, and Nagar road has raised questions among Punekars about why contractors failed to follow the guidelines during the first construction of speed breakers and how PMC authorised payments without verifying compliance. Road engineers should verify the oversight has caused inconvenience for commuters and wasted public funds.
Residents speak up
Vivek Velankar of Sajag Nagrik Manch speaking to The Free Press Journal said, "Not a single speed breaker has been constructed as per the scientific standard norms. They are wasting public money, crores of rupees while reconstructing the speed breakers. Why the double expenditure on the same work? The amount of reconstruction should be recovered from the contractor's pocket; that is the only solution, then they will follow the rules."
Ranjit Gadgil speaking to The Free Press Journal expressed, "When awarding a contract for speed breakers, there should be a specification of the chord (width of the hump), and there should be a technique to be used by the contractor to ensure that he is able to build the speed hump as per the specifications. This must be checked by the Junior Engineers before bills are cleared."
A local resident at Nagar Road Asif Ahmad said, "Speed breakers are necessary but should be in proper structure. One week ago a speedy four-wheeler ramped up a biker, fortunately no fatalities occurred but injured brutally. There should be a proper plan while constructing anything, not only the speed breakers."
Tanmay Thombre, a commuter, said, "I daily travel from the Nagar road and from last week I noticed that all the speed breakers that were on the road are being scratched away and removed. The vehicles are always at high speed on the Nagar road and now there are no speed breakers to slow them down. After the speed breakers were removed, the patch is left uneven and all mud was on the road, which is risky for the vehicles. I have seen bikes slipping from it, and it has been a destruction to the vehicles."
Meanwhile, Aniruddha Pawaskar, Head of the Road Department, said, "There are many speed breakers in the city which had been made without following proper procedures and approval of the police department. We remove all such speed breakers and keep those having permissions by traffic police."
When asked about why these norms have not been followed earlier while making the speed breakers, Pawaskar denied to comment over it. However, he revealed, norms were there but not followed by the dedicated person.
"Ultimately, we have to ensure smooth traffic runs smoothly as well the speed of the vehicle also should be restricted, and the location is being approved by the traffic department. Wellness of the public that is more important rather than putting questions over past happenings. However, we are rectifying such speed breakers and soon all changes will be done," he added.
IRC norms
As per the IRC, the profile of circular-shaped hump is based on the shape of a circular arc with a radius varying from 11m to 113m and a chord length varying from 3.0m to 9.5m to achieve the desired speed of 20km/h to 50km/h. Circular-shaped humps with rises less than assumed 10cm will result in higher speeds than those mentioned. Rises that are higher than 10cm may cause damage to vehicles. For roads with bus traffic, the table indicates the speeds at which buses can reasonably pass the individual humps. If buses must be able to pass at 40km/h, the radius of the hump must be 180m and chord length 12m.
