The Times of India              03.10.2013 

Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation plans to build auditorium in Morwadi

PUNE: The Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) plans to build an open air auditorium and a multipurpose arts centre at Morwadi in Pimpri which will be on lines of the Ganesh Kala Krida Manch in Pune city.

The 3,000-seat auditorium will be built in two phases at a cost of Rs 80 crore. The PCMC will have to change reservations made in the development plan (DP) because the land allotted Recently, the city improvement committee approved a proposal to grant powers to the municipal commissioner for reserving 22,500 sq.m. in Morwadi, and taking steps to make such changes in the development plan was originally reserved for a garden. The municipal corporation will invite suggestions and objections from citizens before the changes are implemented.

The project consultant inspected the land and submitted maps of the proposed project which will have amphitheatre, sculpture, entrance tower, art gallery, cafeteria, education building, 430-seat mini-theatre, a 2,760 seat large theatre and a public plaza among other amenities. The centre have easy access from the Mumbai Pune highway and other roads. A token provision of Rs 1 crore has been made in this year's civic budget.

Incidentally, the municipal corporation had earlier changed the land reservation from garden to traffic park. The civic body had in 2010 invited suggestions and objections from citizens about changing the purpose of reservation of garden in Morwadi in Pimpri to traffic park. It had sent a report about it to the state government for final approval. However, there is already a traffic park in Pimpri Chincwhad which was opened early this year. The traffic park has been developed by the Pimpri Chinchwad New Township Development Authority.

Shiv Sena corporator Seema Savale said, "We had submitted objections in 2010 to the proposal of PCMC to change the purpose of reservation of garden in Morwadi to a traffic park. We do not know whether the state government has approved it. The civic administration had tabled a proposal at the civic general body meeting last month seeking nod for changing the purpose of reservation of garden to multi-purpose arts centre. The officials should have informed the municipal commissioner about the traffic park proposal before tabling the multi-arts centre proposal at the general body meeting."