About the Article
In an opinion article for Sakal's Pune Main edition (24 August 2026), Satish Bora writes about a stretch of the Pune-Nashik road where covering just three to four kilometers recently took him nearly an hour, a delay he argues is not an isolated inconvenience, but a daily reality for thousands of commuters.
The piece asks a simple but urgent question: in the age of Digital India, AI, drones, live maps, CCTV networks, and command control centers, why are civic issues like traffic, potholes, signal violations, and road conditions still handled through slow, manual processes?
Bora points to the FDA's recent proactive approach to monitoring food, medicines, hospitals, and clinics as an example of how determined leadership and consistent enforcement can restore public trust, and asks why the same willpower can't be applied to roads and traffic. He also outlines how technology could help close the gap: AI-based road monitoring, drone surveys, cameras on public buses and police vehicles, and live data from Google Maps, toll systems, and CCTV integrated into a real-time civic command center.
His core message: citizens should not have to suffer first and complain later. In 2026, governance must move from reactive complaint handling to proactive, technology-enabled action.