In Brief — Pune

Agarwal said the company representatives have been asked to attend a meeting on January 5, where they would be given an opportunity to submit their say. Agarwal said the PMC would have no option but to search for another company to make the project report if the Kirloskar Consultants expressed its inability to submit the report immediately. He said the corporation would ask the new company to submit its report within two weeks.

The civic officials are under the impression that the Kirloskar Consultants was reluctant to complete the project because of controversy generated on its earlier report. They feel that the company was deliberately delaying the submission of the project by raising minor and unimportant queries.

When contacted, D V Tikekar, managing director of Kirloskar Consultants, confirmed that he had received invitation for January 5 meeting. Tikekar, however, made it clear that the deadline of December 31 was never confirmed by the company. When asked how much period company would take to submit the project report, he refused to make any commitment saying that company had asked for some information from the municipal corporation. Tikekar said the company would carefully confirm and scrutinise all the information provided by the corporation. He however made it clear that the company was keen to submit the project report as early as possible.

It may be recalled that the general body had unanimously rejected the controversial Rs 736 crore water supply and sewerage project floated by former municipal commissioner Ramanath Jha on September 25. 2 Puneites die in Dahisar mishap n THREE persons, including two of a Pune based family, were killed in a tragic accident when their Maruti Zen car collided with a truck on Mumbra Road at Dahisar in Mumbai in the late hours of Friday. The Khoje family of Sangvi, comprising Shirkant Khoje (38) his wife Sangeeta (35) and their kids Shantanu (5) and Aditi (3) were on their way to see their family friend at Thane on the New Year day when the accident occurred. Shrikant and Shantanu died on the spot while Sangeeta and Aditi sustained serious injuriesand have been admitted to the Thane Civil hospital. Sharif Shafi (45), a family of friend of Khojes accompanying them in the journey, also died on the spot.

The bodies of deceased have been sent Ahmednagar for last rites.