E-Paper
Residents oppose underground tunnel connecting Panchavati to Kothrud, Gokhalenagar
PUNE To save the Vetal tekdi (hill) residents in the area have started an online petition opposing the construction of an underground tunnel that will connect Kothrud, Gokhalenagar and Panchavati
PUNE To save the Vetal tekdi (hill) residents in the area have started an online petition opposing the construction of an underground tunnel that will connect Kothrud, Gokhalenagar and Panchavati.
The online petition has collected as many as 1.4 lakh signatures as of Thursday (January 28).
Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has received all required permissions to conduct a survey and feasibility study of an underground tunnel, but residents point out that a large section of the Bhamburda forest will be affected due to the proposed project.
“Many rare and endangered species of trees on the hills and surrounding area will be destroyed due to the project,” said Pradeep Ghumre, a resident of Panchavati, Pashan.
“The 30-metre road widening at the entrance and exit of the tunnel will also have an impact on the water bodies at Vetal–Chaturshrungi hills. Proposed tunnels will rupture them and plug the recharge area that is contributing the water to the aquifer,” he said.
“It will cause felling of thousands of trees and destruction of natural aquifers in the hills which sustain the trees,” said, Usha Rangarajan, a resident of Panchavati.
The Deccan Gymkhana Parisar Samiti has also opposed the project which they feel will do irreversible damage and is unnecessary.
“The proposed project is against the objectives of the National Urban Transport Policy 2014, the Maharashtra State Urban Transport Policy 2017 and the comprehensive mobility plan of PMC which is also part of Pune’s development plan. Under the policy guidelines, it is incumbent on the government to focus on providing public transport and dissuading the use of private vehicles,” said Sushma Date, member of Deccan Gymkhana Parisar Samiti.
“The metro work is already underway in the city. The idea of the metro is to shift people from private modes of transport to the public mode. For a decade PMC fought all odds to bring success to the metro project and the routes that are approved and under construction will ease the traffic problems of the Law College road and Karve road once the metro begins. Therefore the tunnel and the irreversible damage that it will do to hills is unnecessary at this juncture,” she said.
Indrabhan Randive, executive engineer, project department of PMC, said, “We already had discussions earlier with residents before we got the NOC. incase they have more to say, then we will hear their side too.”
This tunnel, approved in principle by the Maharashtra State government in Pune’s development plan 2007-2027, will go through the Vetal hills complex to connect three sections of Pune - Kothrud, Gokhalenagar and Panchavati. At the Panchavati and Gokhalenagar exits, construction will require excavation of a large section of reserved forest while at the Kothrud exit, deemed forest section will be affected.
In letters dated December 17, 2018, and September 9, 2020, the DCF, Bhamburda has permitted PMC to survey the forest area through the use of total station machine only. The NOC dated September 9, 2020, explicitly prohibits the use of drone cameras and bore machinery and has stringent conditions to not harm any branches/trees and undergrowth - in effect, to respect the forest.
