Old city to turn modern by 2027

Against the backdrop of loud political bickering, the City Improvement Committee (CIC) finally tabled the long pending Development Plan (DP) for the old city in the PMC's General Body Meeting.

The DP includes fast-running metro rails, with a provision of 4 FSI on both the sides of the tracks, and well-designed metro stations.

Besides, it has a total 921 reservations in 1,080.79 hectare of land for hospitals, educational institutes, social, cultural organisations.

The plan will be implemented in 17 peth areas in the old city and 23 suburban villages. "We held an elaborate discussion before finalising the draft DP," said Mayor Vaishali Bankar, who chaired the General Body meeting.

Subhash Jagtap, Leader of the House in the PMC, said, "The DP is a vital document, and the city body has worked extensively on it for the past five years. Now, as per the directives of the State Town Planning Department, we'll start implementing the plan by April 2013."

While Chetan Tupe, chairperson of the CIC, who submitted the reviewed DP in the General Body meeting and had also made some suggestions following recommendation
by the CIC members last week, said, "With the general body proposing changes in the plan, and the draft of DP being made public for suggestions and objections, the plan will now be forwarded to the state for final approval."

He added that despite being criticised by the Congress, BJP, Shiv Sena, and MNS, they have completed our work. "These parties were against the idea of small housing development with allocation of additional FSI facility in the old city." Bharatiya Janata Party state president Vikas Mathkari damned the DP.

"By constructing tall buildings and flyovers, one can't make a city modern. This entire plan is made to keep the builder lobby happy. It will only help builders mint money."u00a0

Highlights of the plan
>> Reservation for stadiums, playgrounds, gardens, old age homes, film city, handicraft villages
>>u00a0To prevent land erosion near river banks, entertainment gardens to be built at riverfronts
>>u00a0Allowing 4 per cent construction on minimum 2,000 square meter area in green belt
>>u00a0Mandatory reuse of recycled water from sewerage treatment plants in the housing societies over 80 tenements
>>u00a0Widening 321 km of roads, with development of 96 km new roads and 18 km of cycle track
>>u00a0Elevated roads at six spots including Agriculture College, JM Road, Karve Road, Swargate, Katraj, Bundgarden, Hinjewadi, Hadapsar and Aundh
>>u00a0Three tunnels linking important roads in the city