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Delay in land acquisition keeps Shivane-Kharadi road project in limbo
According to officials, the price of acquiring the land is now higher than the price of developing the road itself
Due to difficulties with land acquisition, Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) ambitious Shivane-Kharadi road project, which was undertaken more than ten years ago, is still incomplete. According to officials, the price of acquiring the land is now higher than the price of developing the road itself.
At present, the corporation claims to have completed more than 60 per cent work on the Kharadi-Shivane riverside road, but it is in parts and will not serve the purpose of easing traffic congestion in the area.
Out of the total 17.10km road length, PMC needs to acquire land in the 2km stretch between Kalyaninagar and Mundhwa Bridge.
VG Kulkarni, chief superintendent engineer of PMC road department, said, “Due to increasing land cost, we need more than ₹300 crore to acquire land. There is already a residential structure on the proposed land. We have also approached the state government to provide funds for the project, but nothing has happened yet.”
“At present, we have ₹30 crore budget for undertaking work here. If we will get the required land, we will need around ₹100 crore to complete the cement concert road between Kalyaninagar and Mundhwa bridge,” he said.
“Earlier, it was decided to develop the road on Public Private Partnership (PPP) model. After that, PMC decided to develop a round on deferred payment mode,” he added.
According to road department officials, PMC requires around 9519.60 square metres of land to develop the 2km stretch. The civic body will need more than ₹300 crore to acquire the land.
PMC plans to construct the road in two phases – the first phase being the Shivane to Mhatre bridge stretch which is a 5.95km stretch, and the second phase from Sangamwadi to Kharadi which is 11.8km.
