Experts to moot strict DC rules for Pune

The meeting was presided over by standing committee chairman Ramesh Bodke.

All present at the workshop including the State Director of Town Planning L R Patharkar, Pune city engineer M B Harihar, Bodke, Kale and representatives of the Builders’ and Architects Associations were in full agreement in principle with a submission made at the outset by the coordinator of the ECF on the dire need to tighten up the DC rules on “off-street parking”.

Initiating the discussion, Kale said the problem of parking space had been neglected for several years. He said the traffic problem had become serious because buildings did not have adequate parking space for vehicles.

The ECF coordinator in his keynote address said that the present off-street DC rules are “pathetic” if you take into consideration the increasing number of vehicles a new building attracts – belonging to the occupants, employees and visitors. The result is spillover of parked vehicles on public roads, already narrow and choked with traffic, thus enormously increasing the social cost. When the DC rules were revised two years ago, these rules were revised a bit, but not realistically and adequately.

The coordinator appealed for urgent review of these rules. Situation on the streets in the city is already alarming, he pointed out. The matter is aggravated by parking of vehicles on carriageway, which to some extent would have been avoided if at least some of these vehicles could have been parked inside the plots.

He said one of the three likely arguments against further revision could be that it will increase the cost of construction. But the cost will increase only marginally. Owners of a structure sharing the marginal increase is more justified than passing it on to the society at large.

Another objection will be that there will not be enough space to accommodate all the vehicles in the individual plot. He pointed out that there is already a proposal initiated by the city engineer to have the building raised entirely on stilts, thereby increasing the ground-level parking space.

He said the forum appreciates that all the vehicles attracted by the structures will not be fully accommodated even then. Hence, in addition we have to go in for parking lots along busy roads. No plot set aside for this purpose should be de-reserved. All such plots should be acquired, if necessary by granting TDR, and car parks built, maybe on BOT. Owners should also be encouraged to take up car parks on commercial basis.

After three hours of discussion, the participants of the workshop decided to set up a six-member committee comprising the deputy director of town planning Landge, assistant commissioner of police (Traffic) V R Patil, representative of Promoters’ and Builders’ Association of Pune Abhay Manjarekar or Rajesh Choudhari, president of Pune chapter of Indian Institute Architects Dilip Kale and the ECF coordinator, besides an official of the PHADA who will coodinate its functioning.

The committee will finalise its recommendations by November end which will then be followed by a joint meeting of the government and municipal officials and elected representatives in the city. The final recommendations will be sent to the PMC for its consideration.

Participating in the discussion, the city engineer Madhav Harihar admitted that the situation of traffic and parking had become alarming because the unprecedented rise in the number of auto vehicles could not be anticipated while preparing the development plan in 1987. Harihar stated that he had already moved a proposal making 100 per cent stilt compulsory for new constructions so that the residents would get more space for the parking. He also made it clear that the corporation was even willing to allow double stilt for more parking space, if a promotor and builder sought such permission.

Harihar felt that apart from making the DC rules stringent, the situation would not ease unless the use of personal vehicles is considerably brought down by developing an efficient public transport system including light rail transit.

L R Patharkar, director of Town Planning said the development plan prepared in 1982 had considered Pune as the city of cycles. He said the number of two and four wheelers had increased with geometric proportion because of improvement in the standard of living.

Patharkar admitted that there was need to amend the DC rules about construction of hotels and residential complexes. He assured that his department would extend all the cooperation in the exercise to amend the DC rules.

Milind Kale, president of Pune chapter of Indian Institute of Architects, also felt that there was an urgent need to pay attention to the traffic and parking problems in the city. Kale suggested that the PMC should also consider the present rules about height of the buildings, particularly in gaothan area, where traffic and parking scenario was more serious.

Rajesh Choudhari, speaking on behalf of Promoters’ and Builders’ Association of Pune (PBAP), said builders were willing to take all the steps to accommodate more vehicles since the people were unwilling to purchase the flats if there was no adequate parking space in residential complex.

Choudhari said the PBAP had suggested that the PMC undertake the construction of DP roads as several private parties were willing to spend money for it they were given some concessions like TDR. Assistant commissioner of police (traffic) V R Patil said the municipal corporation had to ensure that every structure must come up strictly as per the drawings submitted, especially as regards the parking space in basements or in side margins. Patil also supported the idea of amending the DC rules to for “off-street parking provisions”.