The Times of India 14.10.2010
Civic panel approves BDP land for Shivsrushti
PUNE: The City Improvement Committee (CIC) of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) on Tuesday decided to acquire 75 acres of the proposed Bio Diversity Project (BDP) zone in Kothrud for the Shivsrushti project.
The CIC also approved a proposal to change a Kothrud land reservation -- marking 28 acres (survey number 92+93) there for a garbage depot -- into Civic Cultural Centre (CCC).
"The PMC had earlier planned Shivsrushti project on the 28-acre plot that was a garbage depot from 1965 to 1999. Now, the project will be extended to 103 acres, for which additional 75 acres, from the proposed BDP, will be acquired," CIC chairman Virendra Kirad told reporters on Wednesday.
When the garbage depot was closed, the PMC had made promises to set up a public-utility project there. However, the land had been lying vacant ever since. The CIC has changed the reservation of the garbage depot into CCC, under the provisions of the Maharashtra Regional Town Planning Act.
"Under the project, a permanent exhibition, depicting the life of Chhatrapati Shivaji, will be set up. Project director Nitin Desai, and all of us, want to replicate some of the forts, related to Shivaji Maharaj, in the project. As more land will be required for this, we have decided to acquire the 75 acres BDP land," said Kirad. The project will have sculptures, historical references and other material on Shivaji's life.
However, the move to acquire BDP land for the project is likely to stir a controversy as the draft development plan for the 23 merged villages reserves 1,600 hectares for BDP on hill tops and hill slopes. However, the civic body and the ruling parties have no clear plan on how to raise the compensation amount for landowners. For several years, environmentalists, worried about Pune's declining forest cover and greenery, wanted the BDP reservations protected. With over 90,000 people supporting the idea, the greens had said it was not difficult for the PMC to raise the funds.
The CIC will place its proposals at the general body meeting for approval.
The Metro Muddle
The CIC's decision to go ahead with the Shivsrushti project is likely to affect the proposed Metro. The Delhi Metro Railway Corporation (DMRC) had planned a major terminus for the proposed Pune Metro on the Kothrud land. In July, the DMRC had communicated to the PMC that the two projects cannot co-exist and its general manager (consultancy), S Sharma, saying so, had written to the Pune Municipal Commissioner.
Recently, city engineer Prashant Waghmare held a meeting with the DMRC officials and Shivsrushti project director Nitin Desai over the land issue. However, no concrete solution emerged.
The BJP and Shiv Sena have already made their stand clear that Shivsrushti, a project depicting the events in the life of Chhatrapati Shivaji, on the land in Kothrud, was top priority, hence no land from the proposed project will be given for the Metro project.
