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Smart market projects move at snail’s pace, residents anxious
A majority of the ‘Smart Market’ projects announced by the Pune Smart city Development Corporation limited (PSCDCL) are still with the procurement and processing committee, according to Sanjay Kolte, chief executive officer of PSCDCL
A majority of the ‘Smart Market’ projects announced by the Pune Smart city Development Corporation limited (PSCDCL) are still with the procurement and processing committee, according to Sanjay Kolte, chief executive officer of PSCDCL.
Despite the mega announcement of ‘all under one roof’ concept of market place in 2018, residents living in the smart city area are disappointed.
Kolte said, “We have five market places in the planning. One of them on survey no 85, which is behind Balewadi High street is ready to be handed over to PMC. The rest of them will soon be looked at by the procurement and processing committee.”
In fact, one of the plots reserved for Market place under Smart city in Balewadi survey number 24, (work budget estimate ₹9,992,400) has turned into a garbage dumping area. According to residents in the area, the increasing garbage has become an eyesore and they have been hearing of a vegetable market coming up for many years.
“I am not hopeful that anything will come out of smart city. They have been doing work without planning. There is nothing properly done, nor the roads or the footpaths, it is just adding to the expenses and it is wastage of money. Besides Aundh and Baner, Balewadi was supposed to be done together and they were to involve local communities, it was a good plan but not executed properly. If they had developed a market place, it would have removed the vegetable vendors on the foothpath, which is a problem for us as there is no space for to walk on. Now plot is used only as a garbage dump,” said Sarang Wable, Balewadi resident.
The state of the other four projects is in a state of limbo.
According to Arun Godbole, chief engineer, PSCDCL, “We have four more smart markets planned in 2018, even the tenders were accepted but due to non-availability of vacant sites, local issues and litigations, these projects are still on paper.”
The smart market projects that are stuck are survey number 253 (estimated cost ₹9,225,503 subject to change) which is on Aundh DP road and partly in Baner needs special permission from PMC for the width of the road is less to make this market place.
On survey number 89 in Baner ( ₹8,898,283), in Veer Bhadra nagar was stuck to due to local issues but it has been resolved and work will begin in August.
On survey number 240 ( ₹1, 00, 921, 71) which is behind the Sai Heritage society on the new Aundh-Balewadi link road, the land is under litigation.
