Civic body plans change in Development Control rules for metro project
Wednesday, 22 January 2014 06:14
administrator
The Times of India 22.01.2014 Civic body plans change in Development Control rules for metro project
PUNE: The civic administration has proposed a modification in the Development Control (DC) rules to restrict developments within 10 metres of the proposed metro route.
The state government has already issued directives to regulate development works along the proposed Vanaz-Ramwadi metro corridor. The five-metre stretch will hence be frozen for development works with immediate effect. A no-objection certificate will be compulsory for any construction within 50 metres of the proposed alignment.
The civic administration has sought the general body's permission to invite suggestions and objections from citizens to the proposed modification in the DC rules of old and merged city areas.
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) had proposed 4 FSI on either side of the metro corridors to achieve greater population densification through vertical development of residential and commercial properties. The mass transport project will be economically viable by generating the all-important funds, the report suggested.
The DMRC has said that the project has to be implemented through densely populated areas along highly congested routes. The report says that despite all efforts taken to mitigate inconveniences to the public, certain sensitive land acquisitions and disruptions are unavoidable. "If the project has to go through fast, a visible support to the project from the government and the city corporation should be available. If the project implementation is delayed, the city will become more crowded and it will be practically impossible to carry out construction activities later on. Therefore, a carefully drawn strategy is necessary to implement this project," the DPR states.
Box 1: METRO ALIGNMENT ISSUES
- Elevated metro alignment on certain stretches of the Vanaz-Ramwadi corridor will be problematic due to inadequate road width, sharp turns and other issues
- Some locations are Paud Phata junction, Deccan Gymkhana, Pataleshwar temple, Sancheti chowk junction, railway station area, Jehangir hospital junction and others. At Paud Phata, the road width is about 15 m with a flyover on one side and a 100 m high rise on the otherRoads along which the metro alignment is planned (Karve, JM, Civil court, Mal Dhakka, Station, Bund garden roads) are of varying width insufficient to accommodate the 35 m wide metro stations.
- Several sectors of the road have width less than 30m
BOX 2: Do we really need 4 FSI?
Experts and environmentalists have objected to the four FSI proposal. A Janwani study says that metro influence zone, according to the draft Development Plan (DP) report is 32.95 sq km. This if we consider 500m on both sides of metro corridors.
Residential use as per Proposed Land Use (PLU) has been pegged at 30%, which means 10 sq km land is available for housing. An FSI of 4 will result in built up area of 40 sq km, or 400 lakh sq m. This would generate eight lakh houses accommodating a population of 40 lakh, considering average size of tenement as 50 sq m.
The housing requirement, according to a study carried out for the draft DP, is 6.5 lakh houses which can house a population of 32.50 lakh for the entire city. This proves that tenements generated from the sale of FSI would be much higher than the required built up area to finance the metro, the Janwani report states.
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Civic administration gets more time to form development plan review panel
Wednesday, 22 January 2014 06:12
administrator
The Times of India 22.01.2014 Civic administration gets more time to form development plan review panel
PUNE: The general body of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) extended the deadline to form a review committee to look into the draft development plan (DP) of the old city areas on Tuesday.
The civic administration had sought the extension stating that the state government is yet to appoint its experts.
"The committee has to be formed to review the suggestions and objections regarding the draft DP. The administration was given a period of six months after the draft DP's approval to form this committee. It is supposed to have three members from the civic body and four from the state government. The civic body has named its members, but we are still awaiting appointment of the government experts. Hence, we have sought an extension," said additional commissioner Rajendra Jagtap, while speaking at the general body meeting.
The civic administration had submitted a proposal to this effect to the general body, which came up for discussion at its meeting on Tuesday. Members of the Bharatiya Janata Party opposed the extension, but those of other parties, including the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party, supported it, and the proposal was approved.
The PMC published the draft DP on March 28, 2013. The plan is applicable to the old city, comprising 17 Peth areas and surrounding areas spanning over 147.85 sq km. The DP proposes 921 reservations covering 1,080.79 hectare land for amenities like health, education and recreation. The 1987 DP had 587 reservations for amenities.
This DP will be for a duration of 20 years (2007-27), with special provisions for the Pune metro rail, a transport hub, expansion of main roads, schemes for housing for the needy and cluster development of old dilapidated 'wadas'.
The seven-member review committee will hear over 87,000 suggestions and objections regarding the draft DP submitted by citizens and NGOs. The civic body has appointed Chetan Tupe and Vishal Tambe of the NCP and Abhay Chhajed of the Congress as members to the panel.
Night brushing of city roads to re-start
Wednesday, 22 January 2014 05:41
administrator
The Times of India 22.01.2014 Night brushing of city roads to re-start
SURAT: Once applauded for its innovative ways of keeping the city clean, Surat was slipping on the cleanliness index since a year . The reason- gradual decay in the operating system of night cleaning brushing of roads through contract led to number of issues including misappropriation of funds and contractors doing a shabby job
The situation got so bad that Surat Municipal corporation (SMC) stopped the cleaning and brushing contracts and started getting the city roads brushed through their own daily wagers.
"Delegations from other cities used to visit our city to observe our night brushing and cleaning activities and implement our methods in their cities," said Rajesh Desai, chairman of the Standing Committee.
"We thought this is our USP and we can't let it slip away. So we have decided to re start the activity with new system," he added.
Allocation of Rs 1.75 crore for night brushing of city roads in this year's budget indicates that the activity would be restarted immediately. Tenders would be called for and with strict compliance conditions.
It was after the plague of 1994 the new concept of night brushing and cleaning was introduced. It went on successfully for more than 15 years making Surat a model city in the country. It was ranked in top three cleanest city of the nation .
Even today city ranks in top three cleanest city of the country and spends more than Rs 4 crore to keep it self clean but night cleaning and brushing has stopped from last one year.
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