The Pune Municipal Infrastructure Development Corporation

The PMC standing committee finally approved the civic administration’s proposal to form a special purpose vehicle (SPV) in order to raise Rs 24,000 crore and execute ambitious projects like the metro and mono rail.The special purpose vehicle is a PMC undertaking company called ‘Pune Municipal Infrastructure Development Corporation’.The formation of the SPV has been hanging fire for six months as politicians dithered over committing to it. Corporators feared that the standing committee would lose the clout it wields should economic power pass out of its hands.However, the standing committee meeting on Wednesday finally capitulated. “We approved the SPV and have asked the municipal commissioner to present details of the proposed body before the general body,” said standing committee chairman Shyam Deshpande. Leader of the house and NCP leader Anil Bhosale said, “The NCP, BJP and Shiv Sena members in the standing committee joined hands to approve the SPV and the Congress and MNS members opposed the same.” There were 10 votes for and six votes against the proposal. Major resource mobilisation modes recommended by the civic administration include floating of bonds, attracting investments from citizens through stocks, loans from financial institutes, capital investments from the private industries which will be benefited by the infrastructure projects and, most importantly, by allowing the private investors of the company to operate “certain services” for a stipulated period only — to recover their investments. The first objective of the proposed company will be to examine the traffic and transportation problem of Pune city and execute the projects listed in the ‘Comprehensive Mobility Plan’. Similarly, surveys and project reports will be prepared to implement mega-projects like the mono-rail, metro-rail, tunnels, bridges and flyovers. The proposal also states that it is necessary to move away from the traditional methods of implementing projects and a commercial method needs to adopted for faster development. Also, the PMC is thinking of imposing a tax on heavy vehicles entering in the city.