Posts Tagged ‘Pune Municipal Corporation’

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PMC to begin work on Water Supply Imbalance in the city.

Friday, May 10th, 2013

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is expected to begin work on equitable distribution of water in the city in the next few months. At a seminar on wastewater technology for a green economy, organized by the society for environment education research and management, V G Kulkarni, PMC’s water department chief said that as of now, there is imbalance in the distribution system. The core areas of the city get adequate water supply, but the situation is different in the fringe areas. The civic body has envisaged 100% metered water supply in the city to tide over this imbalance. A detailed project report on equitable water distribution would be ready in the next two months. He said, “The civic body has appointed a consultant for the equitable water distribution project which will be implemented over four to five years”. “The civic body is supplying 1,150 MLD (million litres per day) water for the city’s 40 lakh population. This supply works out to 300 litres per capita per day (lpcd) which is almost double the yardstick. However, it is not true that all citizens get that much water. The core city areas get more than the fringe areas.

He added that the consultant has been studying the total water distribution system. The civic body has a total of 70 water reservoirs and the supply is being monitored. The cost of implementation of equitable distribution of water project is over Rs 1,500 crore. The city lacks a water metering system and citizens pay a lumpsum tax up to Rs 1,100 per year irrespective of the water they use. The civic body has planned to implement 100% water metering system. Sewage treatment is also a concern as the city is not able to treat the entire 750 MLD sewage generated. The treatment plants have the capacity to treat only 567 MLD. The civic body has tied up with Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran to meet the demands for treating all the sewage generated by 2047.

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Pedestrians First requesting to Save trees from the Concretizing of Roads.

Monday, April 29th, 2013

Pedestrians First, a Citizens group, has urged the Pune Municipal Corporation for saving trees from the deadly menace of concretizing of roads. In a memorandum submitted to the Pune Municipal Corporation, Prashant Inamdar of Pedestrians First said roads are being concretized extensively in the city, and in some cases, fresh tarring is being done. At many places, there are trees at roadsides or in the footpath zone. According to Inamdar, “The trunk of tree is sealed with concrete on all sides leaving no space for breathing and growth. When footpaths are constructed or repaired on these roads and elsewhere, cement blocks are tightly packed all around the tree. All this has a suffocating effect on the tree and is bound to have adverse effect on its health. There will not be any water percolation due to lack of soil surface and this will affect survival of younger trees. It is also possible that the growing trunk of large trees would dislocate the footpath blocks causing the footpath surface to bulge out and become uneven which is hazardous for pedestrians”. He also requested to the municipal commissioner Mahesh Pathak to order inspection of all roads and footpaths for identifying locations where concretizing has been done. He also added that at all such places, minimum 2 feet space around the tree should be cleared and soil surface restored with due care to prevent any damage to the tree trunk or roots.

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PMC Urged Citizens to Verify the Structure’s Legality before buying Property.

Tuesday, April 16th, 2013

The Pune Municipal Corporation has urged citizens to buy property only after proper verification of the structure’s legality. Such information has been made available for the citizens on its official website www.pmcalert.org. According to Additional City Engineer Vivek Kharwadkar, “The citizens should keep away from illegal constructions. A list of all PMC-approved building plans has been put up on our website and for structures apart from those, citizens should check with the civic offices concerned to avoid loss of property or life in case of any eventuality”.

In a press statement, the civic administration stated that if any citizen wants to file a complaint or provide information about illegal constructions, then they could do so on the website. The civic administration has urged citizens to provide information on any construction that is being done in haste. According to the civic administration, “The PMC will not provide any civic services to illegal buildings in the city.” It also stated that citizens should get information on completion certificate of any construction before using it for residential purpose. Meanwhile, PMC has intensified its drive against illegal constructions and demolished several structures in Baner and Sangamwadi. Kharwadkar said, “The civic administration has taken up work to identify illegal constructions that are dangerous and need to be demolished. It has also started the process of filing criminal cases against the developer of illegal constructions”.

Kharwadkar said that the civic administration has identified 27 illegal constructions in Taljai, where an illegal building collapsed in September leading to the death of 11 persons. These 27 illegal constructions in Taljai are found in an unsafe condition. According to him, “The PMC has served notice to the residents of three buildings, asking them to vacate them, and has also decided to undertake detailed structure audit of the remaining 24 buildings”.

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Forest areas will soon be free of Encroachments and Litterbugs

Monday, April 15th, 2013

The forest department has decided to construct concrete walls around the periphery of forest areas to save them from encroachments. The walls will first come up around Bhamburda, Warje, and Taljai, constituting around 477 hectares of forest area, at a cost of Rs 3 crore. Once the walls are constructed, entry to these forest areas will no longer be free, as the forest department plans to regulate visitors’ access to prevent them from littering the areas. According to an official of the forest department, “The walls will be built in place of steel fences as the latter are often stolen and sold. It is not possible to keep a round-the-clock watch on encroachers. New encroachments are now being checked, while the civic body will remove the old ones. The civic body will rehabilitate the inhabitants”. He added that there is around 2,000-hectare forest area in and around Pune. The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has provided funds to construct the walls under the supervision of joint forest management committees. Bhamburda has a forest area of around 101 hectares and a periphery of 9,000 metres. Almost its entire boundary has been walled, except a stretch of 1,600 metres, which will be taken up this year. Private institutions built a 4,200-metre wall. Taljai has a total forest area of 245 hectares, where an 11,370-metre wall around the periphery has been proposed. A wall admeasuring 2,245 metres already exists around the periphery, while the forest department has constructed a 2,780-metre wall. Another 6,351-metre is slated to be built soon. Warje, with 131 hectares of forest area, has a total periphery of 6,776 metres. “A concrete wall stretching over 5,710 metres around its boundary has been proposed. A wall admeasuring 1,066 metres has already been built,” he said, adding that all walls will be over two metres high to prevent people from entering the forest.

Another official of the forest department said, “We plan to decide on an entry fee after consensus. People come to these areas for morning walks. A lot of them litter the area, throwing plastic bottles and other waste. Hence, we are also mulling over charging a deposit fee from those who enter these areas with plastic bottles. The deposited money will be returned to them if they still have the plastic bottles with them when they leave.” Forest areas in Ramtekdi, Kothrud, and Bavdhan were also surveyed to identify their boundaries. RCC pillars will be erected in these places for demarcation.

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Waiting for Central Government Approval on Metro Rail Project in Pune

Tuesday, March 5th, 2013

After the Central Government approval, the work on the ambitious Pune metro rail project may start in a period of one year. The metro route that is taken up will be between Vanaz and Ramwadi. The central government recently made a provision of Rs 10.01 crore in the Union budget. According to a senior official of the Pune Municipal Corporation, the proposed metro route between Vanaz and Ramwadi is in fact the second route of the Pune metro project. The first route proposed is between Pimpri and Swargate. The first route however; is pending before the Maharashtra government for approval. After the state government approves the route, it will be forwarded to the central government for approval. Union minister for agriculture Sharad Pawar had recently called a meeting with union urban development minister Kamal Nath to discuss the metro project. The meeting was attended by senior officials and elected office-bearers of both Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad municipal corporations.

 

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Floor Space Index Benefits only for Environment-Friendly Homes

Wednesday, January 23rd, 2013

The draft Development Plan (DP) approved by the civic general body recently, has proposed floor space index benefits to properties which promote environment-friendly homes in their schemes. According to the proposal given in the general body by Congress leader Aba Bagul and board chairman Sudhir Janjot,” An amendments should be made to make constructions more eco-friendly and solar and wind energy equipment should be installed to reduce use of electricity. It further stated that tax FSI benefits should be extended to those who use such equipment. Discounts in paid FSI were also proposed. The general body of the Pune Municipal Corporation approved the draft development plan for old city areas in the last week after marathon discussions lasting around 12 hours and speeches by 53 corporators. The civic body adopted the eco-housing policy in 2008 to promote the environmental, economic, health and safety benefits of green buildings. The policy plans to educate developers, architects as well as buyers to change the city’s scenario and create awareness about environment-friendly homes. The civic body gives discounts in property tax to those implementing these eco-friendly norms in their properties.

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8% hike in property tax in Pune

Wednesday, December 26th, 2012

The civic administration of Pune has made a proposal to increase the property tax by 8 percent for the financial year 2013-2014 by pushing up the general tax structure.

The rate of taxes are finalised every year by the civic body, as per section 99 of the Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporation (BPMC) Act, 1949, and places the same before the standing committee.

If it is approved by the standing committee it becomes a part of the municipal commissioner’s annual civic budget. As per the BPMC Act, before February 20 the General Body (GB) must approve new tax rates.

The proposal for 2013-2014 states, there is a necessary to increase revenue from taxes and other sources considering the cost escalation in developmental projects and expenditure on providing civic amenities, especially projects related to water supply and sewage treatment.

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has proposed hike in property tax in Pune which includes fire brigade tax (0.25%), cleanliness tax (2%), road tax (0.75%), water cess (1%), sewage tax (2%). As water meters have not been installed, a hike of Rs 100 per slab has been proposed in the water tax. The PMC is also planning to give discounts to the property owners, who pay tax on time. If the property tax is paid before May 31, a 10% discount on tax of Rs 25,000 or less is offered, while a 5% discount is offered if the amount is more than Rs 25,001.

There are around 6 lakh residential properties and 75,000 non-residential properties and around 24,000 open plots and the civic body will provide discount to those who will carry out projects such as rain water harvesting and bio-composting in their properties. The main source of revenue for civic body is property tax. The billing and collection of property tax in Pune on residential, commercial, plots and other types of properties are handled by the department which is held privately or by government within the civic limits.

Property tax is charged on land, buildings and permanent improvements, mainly on immovable or tangible real property. All property holders are expected to pay the tax based on assessment done by the civic body on all commercial and residential properties situated within their limits. Property tax may also include basic house/building tax plus service taxes such as conservancy/scavenging tax and road tax which is collected on half yearly basis or annually.

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PMC explains BRTS projects to residents

Friday, December 21st, 2012

The civic body decided to explain the necessity of extending the BRTS projects in the city to the political workers and the citizens of the city.

The civic body’s standing committee approved the proposal of implementing the BRTS project in January 2011. The project was supposed to get implemented on 27 roads at a cost of Rs 98 crore, but there was no progress in the project as the political parties objected to the extension of the BRTS that was expected to get completed by March this year.

The civic body held a meeting and discussed on the BRTS project and explained the details to citizens. A senior official said that they are also planning to convince the political parties that the BRTS is the best option available for the city.

Last year, the civic body decided to install the BRTS project on Bajirao,Tilak, Shivaji, FC and JM roads. The plan was installed in the first phase of the road which was widened to 36 meters and roads which cannot be widened will have mixed BRTS.

The project was put on halt because of the objective from the political party but they have to kick-start the project as the Pune Municipal Corporation has committed the central government to start BRTS across the city.

The political parties had a verbal fight with the civic body that they failed to implement the pilot project properly and there is no chance of success of the BRTS in Pune. All the higher authority are following the view that the BRTS can be proved to be destructive considering the volume of city traffic. All the parties complained that the project will add more more congestion to the already choked roads.

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Katraj lake to be cleaned by PMC

Monday, November 26th, 2012

The cleaning of Katraj lake is on full swing. To recycle the water and increase the level of oxygen the civic body has installed four aerators.

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) had arranged for extra manpower and machinery to remove the dead fish and prevent mosquito breeding in the lake.

The civic body commenced the cleanup work after they found dead fish on the surface of the lake. The civic body has collected water sample which showed that due to less oxygen in the water, fish died and water hyacinth covered the entire river.

Oxygen in water is very essential for marine lifestyle. The samples collected by the civic body showed dissolved oxygen level of 0.5 to 2.5 mg per litre but for good quality of water, the dissolve oxygen should be 5 mg per litre.

Currently, the PMC appointed close to 100 employees with two-earth movers, motor boats, in addition to two spider machine to clean the pond. The PMC’s pest control office has done fumigation in order to avoid mosquito breeding.

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Residents worried as PMC ignore their woes

Wednesday, November 21st, 2012

The existence of 350-odd inhabitants of  Zhunjar Co-operative Housing Community on Ahmednagar Path in Wadgaon Sheri have become miserable because of the sewage produced directly into a nullah through makeshift toilets employed by building staff who are in neighborhood shanties.

The problem has grown to be a significant health risk and also became breeding ground for mosquitoes. The foul smell has been intolerable more than half a year ago and the citizens in the society started off processing official complaints with the civic body for the difficulty.
Citizens said that the civic body has not taken action in this matter although numerous complaints happen to be registered. Even the society members have registered complaints on the internet.
Last but not least, the society members wrote a complaint on the health and fitness department official at Wadgaon Sheri ward office. However, nobody has paid any attention to solve the problem till date.

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