The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) may begin construction of the high-capacity mass transit route (HCMTR) in phases rather than wait for the entire land acquisition process to be completed, with the P L Deshpande Garden-Laxminarayan Chowk-Bibwewadi Chowk-Gangadham-Lulla Nagar Chowk stretch likely to be taken up first after the contract is awarded possibly this year itself; officials said.
For instance, the HCMTR will run along S B Road. Similarly, the stretch from Vishrantwadi to Bombay Sappers Chowk and from Bombay Sappers Chowk to Khadki Cantonment up to Harris Bridge is along existing roads. No fresh land acquisition is required on these stretches. The PMC has submitted proposals for the acquisition of government and private land to the district collectorate for obtaining state government approval. “We expect to get working permission for government land within one to one-and-a-half months. Acquisition of private land is expected to take around three months. The civic body last week appointed a technical consultant to prepare a detailed project report (DPR) for the project. The consultant has been given a month to submit the report. On most government land stretches, there is limited at-grade work and a larger component involves bridge structures.
Deputy commissioner at PMC’s land acquisition and management department, over 40% of the land required for the HCMTR is already available along existing road alignments; while around 30% comprises government land, and another 20% private land, according to Nikhil More. “Over 40% of the land required for the HCMTR is already available along existing road alignments. Whereas the second phase is proposed to cover Viman Nagar Chowk, 509 (Airport), Vishrantwadi and Bombay Sappers, he said.
“Our plan is to obtain working permission for at least the government land within this one-month period so that work can be taken forward as soon as the DPR is submitted. Therefore, working permission will be required rather than formal transfer of the land in every case,” More said.
We only need permissions from the respective agencies,” More said. Proposals involving defence and railway land will be submitted after coordination meetings with the respective departments, officials said. Meanwhile, we are planning to start work on stretches where land is already available or where government land can be made available through working permissions,” More said. Dinkar Gojare, chief superintendent, PMC project department, said that the first phase is proposed between P L Deshpande Garden, Laxminarayan Chowk, Bibwewadi Chowk, Gangadham and Lulla Nagar Chowk.
