State water resource department agrees to lease canal land to PMC

The Maharashtra water resource department has given a green signal to lease the land of the Khadakwasla left canal to the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to ease the traffic problem of the proposed village of Kondhawe-Dhawade, Shivane, Uttamnagar

The Maharashtra water resource department has given a green signal to lease the land of the Khadakwasla left canal to the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to ease the traffic problem of the proposed village of Kondhawe-Dhawade, Shivane, Uttamnagar.

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At present, the PMC is using 20 kilometres of canal land and paying rent to the Khadakwasla irrigation division. Now, the PMC will get another 7 kilometres of canal land for developing roads to connect nearby villages.

On Wednesday, Maharashtra state water resource Minister Jayant Patil gave instructions to the Khadakwasla irrigation division to hand over land to the PMC on rent. After that, the PMC land and estate management department has written a letter to the Khadakwasla division to make an agreement of rent and start a procedure to hand over the land to PMC.

Rajendra Muthe, deputy commissioner of land and estate management said, “We have written a letter to the Khadakwasla irrigation division as per the demand of Member of Parliament (MP) Supriya Sule to hand over the land for roads. After getting the official order of decision, we will start the procedure of agreement.”

The left-bank canal passes through Kondwe-Dhavade, Shivane NDA gate road, Paud, Karve road, Kothrud, Shivajinagar and goes up to Agricultural College. It is a 27 kilometre long canal. However, this canal is not functioning at all and there is no water in this canal. Area under this canal has been developed as a road and it is found that this road provided access in the adjoining lands. Of the total 27 kilometres of road, the PMC is paying rent of 20 kilometres of road (canal) to the irrigation division.

The canal road under the existing PMC limit has been developed and used to connect main roads such as Paud road, Karve road.

Road will help proposed merger

Now, the state government has proposed to merge 23 new villages in the PMC limit and Kondwe-Dhavade, Shivane are one of the villages. The left canal is passing through these villages. Therefore, Sule was pursuing the issue of the canal land to be handed over to the PMC to develop roads which will help develop alternate roads to connect these villages as population has increased and existing roads are not enough to cater traffic flow in this area.

Sachin Dodke, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) corporator said, “At present, there is only one road to connect PMC old limits to Kondwe-dhawade, Shivane area. It is part of the old PMC limit and PMC is giving rent to Khadakwasla irrigation division for using the canal road for movement. The population has increased in Kondwe-Dhawade, Shivane and Uttamnagar area. Therefore, there is a lot of pressure on existing roads which are under the jurisdiction of the old PMC limit. Now, the PMC limit will extend after the merger of villages, so we demanded to give the canal road which is not part of the PMC limit. The PMC has allocated ₹3 crore to develop the road. I explained the importance of the roads to MP Supriya Sule. After that, she pursued the issue and we got permission from water resource minister Jayant Patil.”