MSRTC ring road: Pune district admin to initiate sale agreement on March 21

The 170 km-long Pune ring road will be an eight-lane express highway catering to a vehicle speed of 120 km per hour

PUNE The district administration will be initiating the sale agreement related to land acquisition for the ambitious ring road project from March 21. The 170 km-long Pune ring road will be an eight-lane express highway catering to a vehicle speed of 120 km per hour. Pune district collector Rajesh Deshmukh on March 3 called a meeting of the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) and officials from the land records department regarding the land acquisition process for the construction of the ring road highway.

As far as the compensation amount is concerned, it will be decided by taking into account the ready reckoner rates. The district committee will decide the rates for land acquisition, says Pune district collector Rajesh Deshmukh . (REPRESENTATIVE PHOTO)

Deshmukh told Hindustan Times, “We are awaiting Rs1,500 crore from the state government for initiating the land acquisition process. A budgetary provision has been made but we have not received the funds. As far as the compensation amount is concerned, it will be decided by taking into account the ready reckoner rates. The district committee will decide the rates for land acquisition.”

Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar during his recent budget speech announced a corpus of Rs1,500 crore for acquiring 1,900-hectare land for the ring road project.

The MSRDC has bi-furcated the work for two regions - east and west - to be completed in two phases. According to the district administration, five villages in the Maval taluka of the district will be taken up for land acquisition during the first phase. Post land measurement, the phase of land acquisition is all slated to begin and the district administration has taken a series of steps as it is a sensitive issue and has completed all the technical formalities. The government got officials who worked on the coastal highway project to guide the officials for the ring road project as it did not want to take any chances. A three-day workshop was held in Pune to sensitise the government officials in charge of the ring road project of the project technicalities and sensitivities.

According to the MSRDC, the Pune ring road project will split the city and the highway traffic, and help in considerable reduction of vehicular pollution. The state administration believes that the mega project is needed to decongest roads by diverting traffic passing through Pune en route to other areas in Maharashtra. The existing roads in the city cannot be widened due to the dense urban agglomeration. The interstate and ‘within the state’ traffic flow is extremely high in Pune as three major national highways including Mumbai-Bangalore, Mumbai-Hyderabad-Vijayawada, and Pune-Nashik; and other state highways such as Pune-Pandharpur, Pune-Aurangabad, and Pune-Mangaon pass through Pune adding to the heavy volume of traffic in the Pune Metropolitan area.

The Pune ring road is a proposed circular outer road for the Pune Metropolitan Region and had earlier faced resistance from locals. It may be recalled that the basic infrastructure committee of the state government on August 25 last year gave its in-principle approval to the implementation of the project.

Villages chosen for land acquisition

Mulshi taluka, Katwadi, Marnewadi, Ambegaon, Urawade, Amabdvet, Ghotawade, Rihe, Kessewadi, Pimpallodi, Maval, Pachne, Bembadohole, Dhamne, Parandwadi, Urse