PMC razes unauthorised structures in riverbed between Rajaram Bridge & Mhatre Bridge

The PMC was forced to raze an unauthorised wedding pandal even as the marriage rituals were underway

A week after the building permissions’ department of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) on November 30 served notices to 30 illegal structures in the riverbed area between Rajaram Bridge and Mhatre Bridge, directing that the structures be voluntarily taken down till December 7 else face action, the civic body on Friday brought down all unauthorised structures that had not been taken down voluntarily.

Notices were served to 30 illegal structures under section 53 of the Maharashtra Regional Town Planning Act. (REPRESENTATIVE PIC)

The PMC was forced to raze an unauthorised wedding pandal even as the marriage rituals were underway. Those who were part of the marriage ceremony claimed that they had not been informed earlier about the unauthorised structure or the PMC order pertaining to it. The groom said, “We had booked the marriage lawn by paying Rs25,000 a month before. At the time, the lawn operator did not tell us anything. A day before the ceremony, we were told to wrap up the nuptials early to avoid PMC action.”

PMC executive engineer, Yuvraj Deshmukh, said, “The PMC has removed the encroachments on D P Road near Mhatre Bridge after some of these establishments failed to act despite the PMC notices issued to them earlier.”

The PMC action comes after municipal commissioner Vikram Kumar held a meeting and instructed the building permissions’ department to conduct a survey of illegal properties in the Mula-Mutha riverbed and act against such properties.

In 2015, the Sujan Cooperative Housing Society had approached the National Green Tribunal (NGT), seeking removal of illegal encroachments on D P Road, claiming that these constructions in the riverbed area belonged to powerful business interests.

The PMC took action first in 2017 and then in 2022 after the appointment of the PMC administrator. As per the directions of the tribunal, the civic body was expected to remove the encroachments but it kept on postponing the drive citing some festival/cultural event or the other. The NGT had directed that the green belt be protected and had ordered the municipal commissioner to take action against the encroachments. Shinde said that the PMC had served notices to 30 illegal structures on November 30, 2023 considering the NGT deadline was on December 30. “The order was given by the NGT on October 10 wherein it set a deadline of two months for the removal of the constructions in the riverbed,” Shinde said.