Maha-Metro awaits court order to resume work at Kamgar Putala

With a few Kamgar Putala slum dwellers having got a stay from court on their shifting, Maha-Metro awaits court order to resume work

PUNE: With a few Kamgar Putala slum dwellers having filed a plea in the Bombay high court and gotten a stay on their shifting in August this year, citing Covid-19 as the reason, the Maharashtra Metro Railway Corporation Limited (Maha-Metro) has stopped work on the civil court (Shivajinagar) multimodal metro hub and is awaiting the court’s permission to resume work. The next court hearing is scheduled in the month of December.

Kamgar Putala slum spans six acres near the civil court. With a few slum dwellers having got a stay from court on their shifting, Maha-Metro awaits court order to resume work. (HT FILE)

The Kamgar Putala slum spans around 6 acre near the civil district court along the Mutha river, and is among the land parcels required for the elevated metro station along the Vanaz-Ramwadi corridor and the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority’s (PMRDA’s) Hinjewadi-Shivajinagar metro corridor. The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) too is considering a development plan (DP) road in the area.

Atul Gadgil, director (works) of Maha-Metro, said, “The corporation has shifted around 70% Kamgar Putala slum dwellers with only 30% remaining to be shifted. A few of them have filed cases in the Bombay high court and taken a stay order on the shifting. They have cited Covid-19 as the reason to postpone shifting. In August, the court has given a stay order on shifting the slum dwellers.”

“The slum dwellers are ready to rehabilitate however they want to postpone the shifting due to the Covid-19 situation. We are keeping tabs on a possible third wave and will wait till December as the hearing is also scheduled at that time. We will then request the court to give permission to shift the remaining slum dwellers.”

The PMC plans to rehabilitate the slum dwellers in Vimannagar and Shinde wasti at Mundhwa. The corporation will provide 25 square metre flats to the slum dwellers in addition to two flats that have a ground-plus-one structure with people already living there.

Of the total 1,264 slum dwellers, 923 are eligible for accommodation based on their residential proof. Maha-Metro wants the Kamgar Putala land to develop the civil court (Shivajinagar) multimodal metro hub, and has handed over around Rs40 crore to the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) for rehabilitation of the slum dwellers. The work has reached the last stage.