PCMC plans to rehabilitate slums on private land

PUNE: NP NEWS 24 ONLINE- Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation  seems to have decided to sincerely implement the policy of a slum-free city which was not paid attention for more than a decade. For the initial stage, it has planned a first-of-its-kind project to rehabilitate slums on a private land.

On Tuesday, PCMC Municipal Commissioner, Shravan Hardikar  said, “We have decided to implement a first-of-its-kind project of slum rehabilitation on private land. It will be a pilot project.

PCMC intended to implement the project on its own rather than by the Slum Rehabilitation Authority, which is under the state government. Hardikar added, “The concept plan is ready. It will come up before the City Improvements Committee next week.”

Hardikar also explained that the concept plan includes developing a cluster of slums. A private consultant was appointed for the purpose as well as they have submitted 1,700 crore plan and now they are studying whether the plan is appropriate.

Once the pilot is successful, they might even go for rehabilitating all the slums in a bid to make the city slum-free. The plan for a slum-free city came up almost 15 years back and has been since gathering dust. In the initial phase, slums in Dapodi like Siddharthnagar, Gulabnagar, Mahatma Phulenagar, Limbori vasti, Jaybhimnagar will be resettled. PCMC officials said Pimpri-Chinchwad has 71 slums. Under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, nine slum rehabilitation projects has been implemented.

The project to make PCMC slum-free is a decade long slow procedure. According to a report, in March 2017, due delay in civic body project of PCMC’s pilot project- water supply, slum rehabilitation and sewage treatment plant, PCMC had to return JNNRUM 400 crore. It was claimed that some of the projects were delayed due to various reasons like acquisition, environmental clearances, etc.