PUNE, Dec 2: The city improvement committee's sanction - in principle- towards the aesthetic construction of the old bridge at Aundh jointly by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) has taken a political twist with Pune Vikas Aghadi (PVA) and Congress members lending whole-hearted support and a furious BJP opposing it tooth and nail.Chairman of the PMC's city improvement committee Rashid Shaikh told media persons today that the old and narrow bridge would be replaced by a new one with both municipal corporations sharing the cost estimated at Rs 12 crore. The BJP members however were visibly irked by the civic administration's proposal since the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) had already envisaged the construction of a new bridge at Aundh in its ambitious project.BJP leader in the PMC Suhas Kulkarni and BJP corporator Vikas Mathkari have strongly demanded a reconsideration of the proposal. They sought to know on what basis the civic administration had prepared the cost estimates while Kulkarni even charged that it was a pre-planned move of the Congress and PVA in order to oppose the MSRDC's project.It may be recalled that both Congress and PVA had stalled any decision at the previous weekly meeting of the city improvement committee despite Public Works Minister Nitin Gadkari assuring that MSRDC would bear the full expenses of the project to construct 17 flyovers in Pune and surrounding areas.The ambitious project envisages construction of 11 flyovers in Pune, five in Pimpri-Chinchwad and one in Khadki at an estimated cost of Rs 349 crore. Moreover, as part of the project the Aundh bridge would be replaced by a new one. Mathkari lashed out at the hurried manner in which the proposal was cleared when the Congress and PVA members had dilly-dallied on any decision on the MSRDC's project.When contacted, city engineer Madhav Harihar said the Mayor, Standing committee chairmen and other officials of PMC and PCMC had nearly a month ago decided to float a proposal to undertake the joint construction of the new bridge. "The existing bridge has outlived its life span and we want to make the new one which connects both PMC and PCMC architecturally and aesthetically beautiful".However when reporters asked what was the need for both municipal bodies to undertake the construction when the MSRDC was planning to build a new bridge at Aundh, Harihar said that probably the construction of another bridge can be included under the MSRDC's project instead of the Aundh one.The pending decision on the proposal of MSRDC bearing full expenses for the construction of flyovers was stalled till next week as the new docket providing detailed cost estimates of the work to be undertaken by the PMC had yet to be submitted. Meanwhile the committee also approved the civic administration's proposal of constructing an overhead bridge at the SNDT chowk with an estimated cost of Rs 14 lakh.
