State to give PMC Rs 185 crore to kick-start Chandani chowk flyover plan

PUNE: Finally, Nitin Gadkari, Union minister for road transport and highways, and Devendra Fadnavis, chief minister, have decided to provide a funding of Rs 185 crore for the Chandani chowk flyover project giving it the status of a special plan.

Saurabh Rao, Pune municipal commissioner, said, “Union minister Nitin Gadkari took a review meeting of the Chandani chowk project recently and requested the chief minister to give funds to Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) for acquiring the land. The chief minister acted on it immediately and the urban development department asked the PMC to submit a proposal. The PMC will receive Rs185 crore for land acquisition from the state soon.”

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the PMC jointly did the ground-breaking ceremony of the project on August 27 last year, but the project got stuck due to land acquisition issue. Gadkari and Nationalist Congress party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar were present at the ceremony.

With the project yet to start even after one year, the Opposition have been targeting the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on the issue. By considering this, Gadkari recently took a meeting with PMC and NHAI officials and instructed the chief minister to consider the project as a special case and allot funds for land acquisition.

With traffic at Chandani chowk becoming a nightmare for residents and an accident spot, the PMC proposed a plan to erect multilevel flyover. As the civic body was requiring the permissions from NHAI, it approached Gadkari to get the no objection certificate for the flyover. Surprisingly, Gadkari had said at that time that the flyover is going to come on the highway and it is the Central government’s property. Instead of paying funds on the highway project, Gadkari assured the PMC that NHAI will do the project.

Despite opposing from NHAI officials, Gadkari approved funds for the flyover and instructed it to carry on work as per the master plan prepared by the PMC. It was a relief for the PMC but land acquisition was the civic body’s responsibility. Most of the land required for the project was falling under biodiversity park. Even the PMC would need to demolish some buildings for the project and give compensation to its owners. The standing committee of the PMC approved the funds for giving compensation to flat owners. With the land owners not ready to accept the transfer of development rights (TDR) for their lands and demanding the cash component, the PMC was not in a position to give cash compensation.