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PMC standing committee approves widening of 6 metres roads up to 9 metres
PMC standing committee chairman Hemant Rasane says decision will encourage people to go for redevelopment as wider roads will enable builders to use additional floor space index and civic body will earn revenue.
PUNE: The standing committee of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has approved to widen six-metre-wide roads up to nine-metre-wide in the city, a move meant to boost redevelopment. The proposal was approved on Tuesday though all political parties except Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) opposed it.
According to PMC standing committee chairman Hemant Rasane, the decision will encourage people to go for redevelopment as wider roads will enable builders to use additional floor space index (FSI) which in turn will create more flats. FSI indicates how many floors a developer can build on a plot. It is the ratio of total built-up area to the size of the plot.
“Many internal six-metre-wide roads in the city are an obstacle to redevelopment works. By giving permission to widen these roads up to nine-metre will help citizens consume additional floor space index by loading transfer development rights (TDR). It will help citizens to get more area and PMC will get more revenue by boosting the construction industry,” said Rasane.
Earlier, the proposal was only limited to 323 roads before the PMC standing committee amended it and gave nod to all the new one covering all roads.
With the BJP in majority in PMC, the proposal was passed by 10 against 6 votes with all the opposition parties opposing it. The opposition parties held a joint press conference on Tuesday and opposed the proposal.
Nationalist Congress Party’s city unit president Chetan Tupe said, “BJP’s policy has been selective. Without a proper survey, they approved the proposal with the only intention to collect money from builders. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis himself took a decision not to give additional FSI for properties located on 6-metre-wide roads, now BJP’s own leaders are going against Fadnavis’s decision. The BJP should now either accept that Fadnavis’s decision was wrong or they took the decision for personal interests.”
Congress leader Arvind Shinde said, “BJP first choose the roads mainly in Baner, Balewadi and other areas and later amended it. They know areas where new projects are coming and whom to give benefit by clearing road projects on case to case basis. The proposal will only benefit selective people.”
Decision would end bungalow culture in Pune: Bagul
Widening of the 6-metre-roads up to nine metres would end bungalow culture in Pune, said Congress leader Aba Bagul. “Builders and goons would threat bungalow owners to come forward for redevelopment. Former BJP chief minister Devendra Fadnavis himself made the act and banned allowing additional TDR on six-metre-roads, but the same party took a decision against it,” Bagul said.
The Congress leader said that the party will oppose it and try to save Pune’s bungalow culture. “The roads would not get widened on the ground, but by using the provision additional FSI would get consumer by builders on Laxmi Road. The proposal is illegal as per MRTP Act as standing committee did not have right to take decision for all the roads, but only for certain roads.”
