Chavan puts metropolitan body on fast track

This was among the major decisions taken on Thursday in the first Metropolitan Planning Committee (MPC) meeting of the 45-member committee convened by the chief minister. The meeting also saw an “in-principle” sanction for amending the MRTP for implementing town-planning schemes as has been done by the Gujarat government.

The Indian Express,in a 14-part series in August 2006,had highlighted the pressing need for a PMRDA to ensure speedy development of the region. On Thursday,the MPC members also demanded speedy implementation of a development plan for 23 merged villages. Chavan said some positives on this front would be ready in one-and-a-half months. Elected member of MPC and BJP corporator Ujjwal Keskar had raised the issue in the hour-long meeting in Mumbai today. Keskar also demanded a 0.33 paid Floor Space Index (FSI) in Pune for re-development of the suburbs while president of Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) Ankush Kakade demanded a floor space index of 2.5 which was also given approval in principle by the chief minister.

BJP MLA Girish Bapat raised the issue of the independent town planning schemes; Chavan asked the urban development department to review this.

The MPC meet also decided that its Pune office will be housed at the divisional commissionerate and the deputy director of the town planning will be the nodal officer to implement its schemes.

The meeting also said for Pune,the resources for the MPC will be with the help of both Pune Municipal Corporation and the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation.

A call from the past
“Pune has been aware of the need for setting up its own regional urban development authority for over three decades now. A Pune metropolitan region development plan has been in existence since 1970; it underwent a revision in the early 90s. Now,36 years on,Pune still has no such development body. The result: its citizens have been doomed to a bits-and-pieces approach to development,trapped as they are between two municipal corporations and three cantonment boards,with infrastructure collapsing all around,whether it be roads,transportation system,sewerage or just plain town planning,”
— (The Indian Express,in 2006)