E-Paper
Finally, PMC gets ₹139 crore for land acquisition for Katraj-Kondhwa Road
Civic officials confirmed that the PMC received ₹139 crore from the state government for the Katraj-Kondhwa Road
Finally, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has received ₹139 crore from the Maharashtra government for land acquisition for the long-pending Katraj-Kondhwa Road.
Civic officials confirmed that the PMC received ₹139 crore from the state government for the Katraj-Kondhwa Road. The civic body will now be able to begin land acquisition and other works for this road on priority.
Groundbreaking of the road was carried out in 2018 by the then chief minister Devendra Fadnavis however work on the road was not able to begin due to various reasons. In the meantime, landowners began demanding cash compensation for their land to be acquired for this road. As land acquisition costs were steep, the state government agreed to bear them.
BJP leader Yogesh Tilekar who has been following up on the issue for the last many years said, “The state government approved funds for this road but wasn’t able to release the same for the last many years. The ruling state government approved the funds before the Lok Sabha (LS) elections but was unable to release them due to the model code of conduct.”
“Deputy chief ministers Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar took a lot of efforts to get these funds. They even visited the project site,” Tilekar said.
The Katraj-Kondhwa Road is an arterial road linking Satara Road to Solapur Road. While the road sees heavy outbound traffic from the westerly bypass to Solapur Road, it is only 15 to 20 metres wide and faces severe traffic congestion along the 3.5 km stretch from Kondhwa to Katraj junction through Khadi Machine Chowk.
In December 2018, a PMC-appointed contractor had started widening the road from the existing 15-20 metres to 84 metres. The project cost including goods and services tax (GST) was estimated to be ₹215 crore and the deadline for completion of the project was set as December 2021. However, the work ground to a halt last year as the PMC did not have funds to acquire land for the project. Thereafter, the PMC decided to reduce the width of the road to 50 metres, down from the 84 metres proposed earlier as it was burdening the PMC coffers.
In January 2023, the PMC sent a letter and demanded ₹200 crore for land acquisition. There are a total 150 landowners who have demanded cash compensation. However, the state has not released funds. Hence, the PMC diverted ₹30 crore from the seventh pay commission ₹130 crore fund allocation for PMC employees in the annual budget 2023-24.
The 3.5 kilometre stretch from Khadi Machine Chowk to Katraj junction on Katraj-Kondhwa Road is crucial. If it is not completed, there will be no use of the flyover on Katraj-Kondhwa Road at Katraj junction as commuters will have to face a bottleneck at Khadi Machine Chowk.
