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PMC starts land-acquisition process

Saturday, 15 February 2014 11:00 administrator
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The Times of India            15.02.2014

PMC starts land-acquisition process

PUNE: The civic administration has taken a step towards decentralising the city's garbage processing system, by starting the process to acquire land for five garbage processing units.

"These plants have been marked in the development plan. We have started the paperwork to acquire the land required," Rajendra Jagtap, additional commissioner of the PMC, told TOI.

He said that a proposal to allot funds for the land acquisition for three projects has been prepared and will be tabled before the standing committee.

Of the remaining two projects, the plot for one has to be acquired using transfer of development rights (TDR), the process for which is also under way. The land for the fifth project is owned by the district administration and the civic body has submitted a proposal to acquire the land.

According to PMC officials, the administration also plans to use these plants for e-waste management. The PMC has planned an independent mechanism for e-waste management and small 'waste-to-energy' projects on plots reserved in the city for garbage processing plants. The reserved land is in Baner, Vadgaon Khurd, Ambegaon Budruk and Hadapsar. These projects will each have a capacity to process 100 to 200 tonne waste.

The city generates about 1,400-1,500 tonne garbage daily. As the PMC has stopped open dumping of garbage, about 1,000 tonne is supposed to be processed at the Hanjer biotech company plant in Uruli, while the rest of the waste is taken care of by biogas, mechanical compost and vermicompost units in the city.

Of the total waste generated, wet garbage is around 250 tonne, while dry garbage is around 200 tonne. The remaining 1,050 tonne mixed garbage. The city has the capacity to process 2,000 tonne garbage. In addition to this, there are 27 biogas plants - existing and under construction - in the city, which can process 133 tonne garbage. However, waste generation will keep increasing and the city has to think of setting up new processing units to meet the challenges of the future, city-based environmentalists have said.

 

Civic body to seek Rs 92cr loan from Hudco

Saturday, 15 February 2014 10:57 administrator
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The Times of India            15.02.2014

Civic body to seek Rs 92cr loan from Hudco

KOLHAPUR: The Kolhapur Municipal Corporation is planning to procure loan of Rs 91.44 crore from the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (Hudco) for the developmental projects under the Nagarotthan Abhiyan sponsored by the state government. The standing committee of the KMC gave approval to the proposal on Friday.

In 2010, the state government had approved a road construction project worth Rs 108.11 crore and a storm water drainage project amounting to Rs 75.58 crore under the Nagarotthan Abhiyan. Accordingly, the KMC was given the task to complete the 49-km road construction work and construction of drains along 93.85 km roads, culverts at 41 places, retaining walls at the existing nullahs to prevent the flood water from entering the residential premises and nullah channelization (13.58 km).

Sachin Chavan, chairman of the standing committee, told TOI, "Owing to poor financial condition of the civic administration, it was not able to raise the share of funds required for the implementation of the project. Therefore, we approved a proposal seeking loan with an annual interest rate of 11.75%. Hudco has said that it will provide us the loan. The work will gather momentum as soon as the funds arrive."

The KMC was among five other urban local bodies which received funds under the Nagarotthan Abhiyan. The work which started in early 2011 has not been completed yet as the KMC was unable to raise funds.

"The deadline for road construction work and the storm water drainage project ended last year. The contractors were not unable to deliver properly and therefore, most of the work has been retendered. The earlier contractors were blacklisted," Chavan added.

Earlier, the civic administration had given the works to Shantinath Roadways, VUB engineering and Relcon infrastructure. The contractors found the work difficult due to reluctance of the civic administration to provide funds on time. Besides, there were delays in providing the designs of the storm water drains on part of the civic administration.

"The response to the retendered work is slow and the contractors are not willing to work within the stipulated amount. We have urged the local contractors to take part in the bidding process unlike last time when they were forbidden to fill the tender forms owing to low turnover," Chavan added.

 

Municipal corporation against house tax hike

Saturday, 15 February 2014 10:55 administrator
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The Times of India            15.02.2014

Municipal corporation against house tax hike

CHANDIGARH: The municipal corporation (MC) has asked the UT administration to allow it to seek property tax from residents on the existing rates in the financial year beginning from April even though UT was pressing it to enhance the charges.

The demand was made in a letter to the local bodies wing. "The letter was sent following the common view of public representatives. We are yet to get any reply,"
said Rajiv Kumar Gupta, joint municipal commissioner, MC.

Anil Kumar, home-cum-secretary, local bodes wing, UT, said, "We have received the letter. We are yet to decide the next course of action. But, we are not in favour of burdening the people. The tax amount should be rationalized and justified."

Sources said the letter was written a few days back following the meeting of municipal councillors. Mukesh Bassi, a councillor, said, "The tax should not burden the public but provide facilities to them. There is no reason to enhance the amount." 

 
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