Pune Metro update

Though the Maharashtra cabinet approved the ambitious Metro rail project for Pune on June 7, the state government is yet to bring out a government resolution (GR) in this regard.
Failure of the state government to promulgate the GR has thrown a roadblock in the way of the proposal which was supposed to be sent to the central government for approval next year.
The reason for the delay in circulating the GR is that the urban development department of the state government has been preparing notations on the Metro rail decision for the last 2.5 months.
Following the finding that the car depot of the proposed Metro rail project and Shiv Shrushti Museum (Shivaji memorial) cannot co-exist at the Kothrud garbage depot, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has promised the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) that it will re-examine the plans to see whether the memorial and the car depot can co-exist.
The Kothrud garbage depot is reserved for the Metro rail car depot and the Shivaji memorial.
The PMC had asked the DMRC whether it was possible to integrate both the plans.
According to a letter sent to the PMC by the DMRC, the latter is re-examining the whole proposal keeping the two plans in mind.
Earlier, in a letter dated March 29, the DMRC had mentioned that there was no alternative to the depot land proposed on the premises of Agriculture College unless the alignment is extended up to Nigdi in Pimpri-Chinchwad area, where a large area belonging to the defence ministry is lying vacant.
The Maharashtra cabinet on June 7 had approved the Metro rail project for Pune. The 15-km-long Vanaz-Ramwadi Metro rail corridor will be constructed in the first phase of the project at a cost of Rs2,593 crore. Pune’s Metro saga had undergone another U-turn when it was decided that the first phase of the project would be elevated.
The Swargate-Pimpri Chinchwad phase of the Metro project will cost Rs5,391 crore, while the Kothrud-Ramwadi section would cost Rs2,593 crore.
The second phase of the project will be 44-km-long covering Shivajinagar-Hinjewadi-Deccan-Bundgarden-Swargate-Katraj-Pimpri Chinchwad and Nigdi. The project will be completed in 5 years, including three years of construction time.
Seems like Pune is Prithviraj Chavan's step child....no substantive movement on the PMRDA, Ring Road, Metro, Airport, BRTS, BDP, Pune - Mumbai leg of the high speed train corridor.....

Pune's stuck Bio Diversity Parks plan update

In what could be termed as a moral victory for hundreds of citizens who had pressed for a Green Development Plan for the 23 fringe villages, the state government-appointed expert committee has recommended execution of the Bio Diversity Park (BDP) reservation on 905.54 hectares in these villages.
The six-member committee headed by K B Jain, dean, faculty of doctoral studies, center for environmental planning and technology, Ahmedabad, has strongly recommended that the BDP reservation — though not a zone as recommended by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) — on the hills, forest and other green areas in these villages should stay and not be canceled.
The committee has recommended that the PMC should execute the BDP as a “mission development” since it will improve the quality of life in Pune city. A task force comprising all stakeholders from the government and from among the citizens should be set up to accomplish the mission. “Corporate bodies may also come forward to participate in the mission,” the committee has said.
The PMC had recommended BDP zoning on 978.54 hectares spread across seven hills. The committee recommended that 73 hectares proposed under BDP zone be deleted and included in residential zone to honour “committed development”.
Thus, the expert committee has proposed to provide a relief to the developers and land owners on these 73 hectares where layouts for construction activity had already been sanctioned. “The reservation would finally have the area of 905.54 hectares, on the exclusion of 73 hectares on which the development permission should be honoured,” the report said.
Though the report was submitted on May 10, 2012, it was not made public and the state government is yet to formally announce its final stand on the BDP reservation. However, the recommendations of the expert committee in favour of BDP reservation have come as short in arm for environmentalist and civic activists who are pressing for a ‘Green DP’ under the aegis of Green Pune Movement. The representatives of the movement got a copy of the report through the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
“We have been battling to save our city for many years. The fight for a BDP reservation started in 2002. It is very important to note that this plan, which was known as the Green DP, was passed by the General Body of the PMC twice with progressively more support from the corporators. The only corporators who did not vote for it were from the Bharatiya Janata Party,” Aneeta Gokhale Benninger, a member of the group said.I.
One of the main objections raised by those opposed to the BDP was that the PMC will have to shell out a huge sum to acquire the BDP land. Benninger pointed out that the expert committee has ruled that the PMC will be required to offer just 4% Transfer of Development for BDP land acquisition.