Activists frown at PMC’s river ‘navigation’project

City-based activists have claimed that the Pune Municpal Corporation (PMC) is working on a Water Navigation Project that envisages a public and goods transport system using rivers as a means of travel. Sarang Yadvadkar,city-based activist,used the Right to Information Act to obtain the minutes of a PMC meeting in 2008. One of the resolutions passed in the meeting says: “the ongoing projects approved under JNNURM should be restructured to meet the requirements of the river navigation project and continued with existing contractors.”

“Three to four resolutions point at the PMC working towards a river navigation project,using funds sanctioned under JNNURM for river restoration work,which is a different project altogether,” said Yadvadkar. The proposal for the river navigation project was prepared by Pune-based Naik Environmental Research Institute Limited (NERIL) and was forwarded to the Irrigation Department and MoEF for approval in 2008 along with Central Design Office (CDO) Nashik in 2009. “The CDO replied saying that the report has not completely analysed the flood situation that would arise due to the proposed changes in the report,” claimed Yadvadkar.

“Implementation of the project would not only transfer the pollution from roads to the rivers,but also create problems such as river scarcity,demolition of three bridges and damage to four. CDO Nasik had suggested that the implementation would increase the flood levels by 1-3.5 metres,which is dangerous,” he said.

“This is linked with the contractor lobby. There are around six to seven projects that are going on- river navigation,restoration,riverside road- among others. PMC does not have the expertise to use funds that they get creatively and instead direct the funds towards projects that nurture contractors. Neither the citizens nor the activists are vigilant enough to ask the contractors about the projects being carried out. Awareness among citizens is the solution,” said activist Vinod Bodhankar.

Srinivas Bonala,additional city engineer,said,”The river comes under the purview of the Irrigation Department. As far as the project that the PMC is implementing is concerned,it is a river improvement plan that has been funded by the JNNURM and it deals with the flood levels and other such projects. We have nothing to do with the river navigation project.”