PUNE: Despite the civic administration approving the proposal for
widening roads in the 23 merged villages, the Pune Municipal
Corporation’s (PMC) standing committee continues to let it gather dust.

In March 2011, Congress leader Aba Bagul had proposed that the roads in
these merged villages that fall within the PMC limits be widened by 50%
anticipating the increase in the number of vehicles in the future.
Bagul had forwarded the proposal to the standing committee, which, in
turn, had sent it to the civic administration. The villages have a
1,000-km-long road network.

“The Development Plan of the 23
villages was prepared in 2000 and since then, the number of vehicles has
increased considerably. The roads in these villages connect national
and state highways and widening them is the need of the hour. Though the
civic administration approved the proposal in May 2011, the civic
standing committee is sitting on it,” Bagul told TOI.

The
proposal will have to be approved by the standing committee and then by
the general body of the PMC before the actual implementation begins.

The PMC has decided to increase and improve the road network of the
city through public-private partnership, rather than making it an
entirely civic project. The civic body is also considering other modes
of project financing such as transfer of development rights as well as
build, operate, transfer and deferred payment methods, a senior civic
official said.

Standing committee chairman Baburao Chandere said
the civic standing committee members are “studying” the proposal for
road-widening in the merged villages and a decision would be taken in
the next few weeks.