PMC demolishes illegal furniture malls near Bavdhan, Pashan on Pune-Bengaluru highway

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) on Thursday conducted a mega drive to demolish illegal furniture and other malls that have sprung up near Pashan and Bavdhan on the Pune-Bengaluru highway. These structures have come up on land controlled by the High Energy Materials Research Laboratory (HEMRL) and there have been complaints about them for the past one year.

Following complaints from the HEMRL however, the PMC building permission department on Thursday demolished illegal malls spread over an area of one lakh square feet on the Pune-Bengaluru highway.

The PMC deployed heavy machinery for the demolition drive while the Hinjewadi police provided the bandobast during demolition. As the Pune-Bengaluru highway is frequented by IT employees, videos of the PMC action kept doing the rounds of social media on Thursday.

Executive engineer Yuvraj Deshmukh said, “The said constructions had come up on HEMRL land. These malls were putting an additional burden on the highway traffic. The HEMRL complained about these malls after which the PMC undertook the drive and demolished the malls spread over one lakh square feet area.”

The PMC building permission department announced that the drive will be continued next week and action will be taken against the remaining malls near Bavdhan and Pashan on the Pune-Bengaluru highway.

Meanwhile, some citizens criticised the PMC on social media saying that when they filed complaints about these malls, the PMC did not take any action. The citizens said that if the PMC had taken action right in the beginning, the illegal sprawl could have been contained.