PMC gives nod to six fly-overs

Utter chaos prevailed in the House when Congress corporator Vilas Wadekar raised the point of quorum. The BJP leaders, somehow, managed to get the required numbers by the time Municipal Secretary Ramdas Jagtap started the counting. Disorderly scenes were noticed once again when Jagtap announced that meeting had sufficient numbers.

Congress corporators Kakade, Wadekar and Ulhas Dhole-Patil tried to convince Mayor Vatsala Andekar that the meeting had inadequate quorum as needed by the rules, even as BJP corporator Ujwal Keskar continued with his speech. At one point, Kakade was seen rushing to BJP corporator Vikas Mathkari, following some remarks by the latter.

While the meeting plunged into turmoil, Leader of the House, Chandrakant Chhajed requested the Mayor to conduct voting over the proposal. There were no objections when Jagtap asked for a vote on the proposal. He later announced that the resolution was passed unanimously, while the angry Congress corporators rushed to Mayor, challenging the legality of the proceedings.

Earlier, the Congress tried its best to stall the proposal from the moment it was tabled. Shantilal Suratwala and Dhole-Patil submitted their supplementary suggestions, immediately after the proposal was tabled. Suratwala demanded that the corporation should float all the tenders, and should not allow Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation MSRDC to do so. Dhole-Patil said that the PMC should take up the proposal for its consideration only after it had received written proposal from MSRDC that it would bear the entire expenses for the construction of fly-overs. Both the supplementary suggestions were rejected by the House after the voting.

Besides, six flyovers, MSRDC has proposed to construct a railway overbridge, a bridge on Mula river at Aundh and widening of Wellesley Bridge.