Pune Mirror: Pune: Saturday, April
15, 2017.
Slum
rehabilitation, water supply caught up in controversy and land acquisition
problems.
Delays in
civic projects have cost the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) a
hefty Rs 400 crore. With March 31, 2017 being the last date for the civic body
to complete several of its pilot projects water supply, slum rehabilitation,
sewage treatment plants PCMC will be forced to return the funds to the
Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNRUM).
PCMC had
launched JNNURM projects worth Rs 2,562 crore in 2006. Some of the key ones
included the bus rapid transit system (BRTS), lifting water directly from the
Pavana dam through a closed pipeline, slum rehabilitation, 24x7 water supply,
etc. There were around 18 such projects to be taken up and completed by March
2017.
Neelkanth
Poman, PCMC assistant commissioner, said, “Some of the projects were delayed
due to various reasons acquisition, environmental clearances, etc. But several
of them have been completed and have given Pimpri- Chinchwad a complete
makeover over the last decade. The civic administration covered all the major
highways and road development work.”
Poman added
that the incomplete projects would now have to be completed on PCMC’s own
steam. Those left incomplete include the Rs 715-crore slum rehabilitation
project entailing construction of over 18,000 flats. PCMC had constructed
nearly 6,000 flats of 11,000 flats in Sector 22 of the Ota Scheme, before the
project was caught up in a controversy. A Sena corporator, under the Right to
Information Act (RTI), revealed that PCMC was in serious violation of the Works
of Defence Act, 1903, the Environment Protection Act, 1986, and the Maharashtra
Regional and Town Planning Act, 1966. In 2011, the Bombay High Court (HC) had
issued a legal notice against development of the SRA scheme in the red zone
area of the Dehu Road Ammunition depot at sector 22, Nigdi.
Lifting water
from the Pavana dam, too, has been stalled over the last four years after ten
farmers died in Maval during an agitation against the project. Rs 358 crore was
sanctioned, but work of only Rs 163 crore has been carried out, as per civic
records.
Similarly,
for the 24x7 water supply project, PCMC had received Rs 140 crore but was able
to spend Rs 25 crore. The remaining funds, therefore, lapsed.
As far as the
BRTS is concerned, PCMC had successfully completed 80 per cent of the work
undertaken in phase one. But, two of the routes Dehu-Alandi and Kalewadi are
stuck due to problems with land acquisition.
Some of the
projects were delayed due to various reasons acquisition, environmental
clearances, etc. But, several of them have been completed and have given
Pimpri-Chinchwad acomplete makeover over the last decade.
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