E-Paper
Kharadi-Shivane riverside road project stuck due to land acquisition
PUNE: While the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) started work on its ambitious Kharadi-Shivane riverside road in 2012, eight years down the line, the project is still stuck due to land acquisition and the presence of authorised structures in some places along the route
PUNE: While the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) started work on its ambitious Kharadi-Shivane riverside road in 2012, eight years down the line, the project is still stuck due to land acquisition and the presence of authorised structures in some places along the route. Out of the total 17.10km road length, the PMC needs to acquire land for more than 2km so while the original deadline has been extended once till December 2021, it will have to be extended again in view of the current situation.
V G Kulkarni, chief superintendent engineer of the road department, said, “The corporation required land for more than 2km road stretch. The PMC is trying to complete work on phases 1 and 3. In phase 1, we need land for the 350m road stretch between Rajaram bridge and Mhatre Bridge. We require around 9519.60 square metre land for a 2km stretch in phase 3 to complete the project. The corporation will have to raise around Rs300 crore to acquire the land. Therefore, the commissioner has decided to check the option of credit bonds.”
As there is a shortage of funds required to acquire land for the Kharadi-Shivane road and widen the Katraj-Kondhwa road, PMC commissioner Vikram Kumar has decided to explore credit bonds as an option for acquiring land. Officials however are not sure if this will help in acquiring land. At present, the corporation claims to have completed nearly 61% of the work on the Kharadi-Shivane riverside road but it is in parts and will not serve the purpose of easing traffic congestion along the city’s biggest roads.
A senior official of the PMC said, “The project is already stuck as there are a couple of buildings existing in phase 3. Along the Aga Khan bridge to Mundhwa bridge stretch, there is a 700m patch where there are three four-storied buildings, all of them authorised. The purpose of the road is almost ruined.”
In 2007, the PMC planned to construct the road in two phases – the first phase being the Shivane to Mhatre bridge stretch which is a distance of 5.95km, and the second phase from Sangamwadi to Kharadi which is a distance of 11.8km. Thereafter, the project was divided into three phases to include the Mhatre bridge to Sangam bridge stretch of 5.50km. However, it was dropped later as it fell along the blue line of the Mutha river.
The Kharadi-Shivane riverside road is part of the development plan (DP) of the city and work actually started in May 2013. The project cost was Rs363 crore, with the corporation having paid Rs228 crore to the contractor till date. However the project cost has escalated by Rs41.50 crore because of land acquisition, with the corporation using the deferred payment option (five annual installments of 20% each). While the project was originally scheduled to be completed in three years, it continues to be incomplete even eight years down the line. The 17.10km-long fully-concrete elevated road runs along the banks of the Mula and Mutha rivers and is 24 to 30m wide. Earmarked as a ‘riverside’ road in the 1987 development plan, the road will serve as a vital link between the Mumbai-Bangalore and Pune-Ahmednagar highways.
