No provision for Metro in draft civic budget

At a time when the proposed Metro is the hot topic of discussion and is being touted as a key solution to the city's infuriatingly chaotic traffic conditions, Standing Committee chairman Baburao Chandere did not mention anything about the transport system in the Rs 3,633.02 crore Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) budget for 2012-13.

Chandere presented his draft budget in a specially organised General Body meeting yesterday, but nothing was said on the allocation of funds for the Metro project.u00a0Discussions on the budget will take place on April 16 in the General Body meeting.

After the budget presentation, when Chandere was asked about the metro, he said there were funds enough for the Metro and the PMC would shoulder its share of the responsibility for the project.

"There is no dearth of for funds in the municipal budget. The PMC will certainly take the responsibility for its 10 per cent share in the Metro project. The project has been sent by the state government to the Centre for final approval and we all are perusing it," he said. "The share of PMC money in the project will get finalised when the Centre and the state government decide their share."

The budget was the first one presented by Chandere, who had made promises like making the city "woman friendly".u00a0The budget allotted Rs 30 lakh for celebrating Women's Festival on Women's Day on March 8.

For the improvement of city environment, he introduced the Adopt a Tree scheme and made an allocation of Rs 25 lakh in the budget for it. In the budget, Rs 1 crore has been kept aside for traffic control, Rs 3 crore for converting PMC's Kamla Nehru Hospital into a super-specialty facility, Rs 25 lakh for playgrounds for children, and Rs 3 crore for an indoor kabaddi stadium near Swargate Junction.u00a0