E-Paper
PPP bridge from Bund garden road to Mundhwa in Pune planned to ease traffic problem
Commissioner has stated that 11 roads and two bridges have been planned to be developed on PPP model as well as gardens through corporate social responsibility funds
The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has introduced a public private partnership (PPP) model to construct a new bridge from Bund garden to Mundhwa bridge which is parallel to the Mula-Mutha road to ease traffic problem of Koregaon park area. However, the corporation needs permission from the Khadakwasla irrigation department and environmental clearance from the state to go ahead for the project.
Due to Covid-19 pandemic , PMC is currently facing financial crunch for the development work. Therefore, PMC commissioner Vikram Kumar has introduced a development model to take help of private players to ease the financial burden. Commissioner has stated that 11 roads and two bridges have been planned to be developed on PPP model as well as gardens through corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds. Under the concept, PMC doesn’t need to spend money as private players will spend money and PMC will give credit notes which private players can use in building construction related activities to pay development charges, premium charges as well as transfer credit to developers.
At present, there is no alternate road to reach Mundhwa, Hadapsar and Keshavnagar area through Koregaon Park. Due to developing Mundhwa and Keshavnagar area, North main road is facing traffic problems. To ease the traffic problem, the corporation has chosen a bridge of 5.5 kilometre parallel to the right bank of Mula-Mutha river and North Main road of Koregaon Park. The width of the road will be 30 metre as mentioned in the development plan of the city.
Environment clearance and irrigation NOC
Amar Shinde, executive engineer of the road department, said, “The proposed bridge has already been mentioned in the development plan of the city. It is parallel to the right bank of Mula-Mutha river. The bridge is divided into two portions- one is from Bund garden bridge to Aga Khan bridge and second starts from Westin hotel to Mundhwa bridge.”
He further said, “Three kilometres of the bridge will pass through the riverbed and remaining portion of 2.50 kilometre is on land. For the land portion, we will have to acquire land. We will have to take permission from Khadakwasla irrigation department as the bridge is passing through the riverbed. Besides that, we will take environmental clearance from the state environment department. Right now, we have initiated a process with a floating tender to appoint a consultant.”
Different from Vittalwadi road in riverbed
Pune municipal corporation received got a major setback during Vithalwadi to Pune-Mumbai National highway (NH-4) road construction which was passing through the Mutha riverbed.
In 2014, NGT and Supreme Court had passed order to stop work and remove debris which was dumped to construct riverside road from Vithalwadi to Pune-Mumbai National Highway (NH-4) bypass in 2010.
When asked about the similarity of bridges, Shinde said, “Both are different issues. There was a road constructed by putting debris in riverbed which was supposed to cause an obstacle to the natural water flow of the river. Here, there is no such issue. We are not going to dump debris in the riverbed.”
RajendraKumar Mohite, chief engineer, water resource department, Pune, said, “We will mark the floodline in the riverbed. Bridge pillars have to be built so that it cannot create obstacles to river flow. We will check all necessary impacts on the river before sanctioning the plan, and we avoid giving permission in the blue line of the river.”
