A letter from 2007 and SRA’s stuttering Lohegaon project

In a letter dated April 16,2007,the then assistant chief of air staff,AF Works,sought to differentiate between the technical and domestic areas at the station,saying “Provision of notification not to be enforced for domestic area”.

The SRA construction on Survey No. 203/2A,adjacent to the domestic area of the Lohegaon station,was based,therefore,on “nil” restrictions in the area. Five of the nine planned 11-storey buildings had been completed when a letter from the defence ministry delivered the project a jolt.

On June 16,2011,the ministry wrote to the AOA/Air HQ,seeking removal of the domestic/technical area clause,which it said contravened the original gazette notification,which made no such differentiation. “Fix the responsibility for Air HQ’s circular dated April 16,2007,” Air HQ was told.

Subsequently,through another letter dated May 18,2011,the 100-m restriction was stressed. And on October 31,2011,the new AOC 2 Wing wrote to Pune Municipal Corporation saying,“In the present scenario,the construction cannot be recommended.” Work has remained stalled ever since.

On April 9,2008,the then district collector Prabhakar Deshmukh had brought out a notice listing Survey Nos. near the Lohegaon station on which restrictions had been imposed. Survey No. 203/2A,which shares a wall with the domestic area of IAF 2 Wing,was not on the list — presumably because “nil” restrictions were assumed.

Work on the SRA project began in November 2009,without the IAF’s no-objection certificate. After residents and a senior citizens’ group raised red flags,the IAF wrote to SRA on December 3,2010,asking it to direct the builder to stop construction and apply for an NOC.

“We immediately applied for the NOC,” Sachin Agarwal of Raviraj Creative Associates,the developer,said. Air HQ is said to have received the builder’s application on April 4,2011.

Sanjay Kolte,ACEO,SRA said,“We approved the project as per the 2007 gazette notification. The said plot never figured in the district collector’s notice or the UDD notice in 2011 as a restricted area. We have asked for an NOC as per the new rules. While five buildings are complete,the remaining will be completed with four floors. We have asked the builder to submit a revised plan.”

PMC Commissioner Mahesh Pathak said in an SMS: “When the Air Force informed about proximity to residential area,we restricted the floors.”

The IAF 2 Wing spokesperson did not respond to calls. Former district collector Prabhakar Deshmukh was not reachable.