Municipal commissioner Shrikar Pradeshi said the civic administration
has made a provision of Rs 19 crore in the draft budget of 2013-14 for
the construction of these three

auditoriums, including a provision of Rs 1 crore for the construction of an auditorium on the lines of Pune’s Ganesh Kala Krida Manch – the place for which is yet to be decided. He said the remaining two auditoriums will come up at Pimple Gurav and Akurdi.

Explaining the rationale behind these auditoriums, Pardeshi said, “The
population of the industrial city has been growing very rapidly in the
past three decades

due to rapid urbanization. There is a need
for opening more auditoriums in various parts of the city for hosting
cultural and social programmes. Many organizations have voiced such
demand with the civic authorities. A meeting was held with the
representatives of cultural organizations, dancers, musicians and others
for finalizing a cultural policy, in which they complained that there
was no space available in the city for conducting rehearsals of plays or
other programmes.”

Earlier, there were only two auditoriums in
the city constructed by the civic body, namely Prof Ramkrishna More
auditorium in Chinchwad and Acharya Atre auditorium in Pimpri. The civic
body opened the third auditorium called the Ankush Landge auditorium in
Bhosari along the Pune-Nashik highway around a year back.

“So we will be providing such space in the form of an auditorium to be constructed at Akurdi,” he said

Pardeshi admitted that there were some complaints from citizens
regarding the shoddy operation of the existing auditoriums. “Steps will
be taken to redress these complaints,” he said.

“There is a
demand for opening an auditorium on the lines of Pune’s Ganesh Kala
Krida Manch in Pimpri-Chinchwad city for holding cultural and social
programmes on a bigger scale.

“The civic body has taken a
decision to construct an auditorium in the city which will need a plot
with an area of around five acres for the project. It should be located
in a populated area and not an industrial area

so let the
locals benefit from the project. The PCMC will select one final location
where the auditorium will be constructed,” he said.

Speaking to TOI, director of Atharva Theatre Sanjeevkumar Patil
welcomed the proposal of the municipal body to construct an auditorium
at Akurdi. He said there is a need for opening small auditoriums in
various parts of the city for organizing rehearsals of plays, elocution
contests and literary programmes.