PMRDA’s development plan to be tabled before Maharashtra CM on January 24

The meeting for approval of the draft development plan of the ‘Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) has finally been fixed as it will happen in Mumbai on January 24 under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. After approval of the plan in this meeting, it will be submitted to the state government.

In 2017, the PMRDA had proposed a draft development plan. Then on August 2, 2021, the draft development plan was finally prepared. Objections and suggestions were invited from the citizens. About 67 thousand citizens filed objections.

Further procedures regarding the draft development plan were halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the state government extended the deadline of the further procedures. Meanwhile, a committee of experts was appointed by the state government in December 2021 to hear the objections filed. The committee started hearing from March 2, 2022, after inspecting the objections filed.

After ten months i.e. in December 2022, the hearing preparations of the committee were done. Then in January 2023, the hearing of institutional and public representatives on the development plan was conducted by the committee. In this way, after completing the hearing on the draft development plan, it was placed before the Pune Mahanagar Niyojan Samiti (Pune Metropolitan Planning Committee) under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister for final approval.

As the deadline for submitting the draft plan was ending on June 20, there was a possibility that the draft plan would be approved. However, it was said that a six month period is insufficient for submitting the draft development plan. Hence, planning authorities in the state like PMRDA etc should be given a one-year extended time period instead of six months to submit the draft development plan. So, the amendment in section 26 (1) of the Maharashtra Regional Town Planning (MRTP) Act was approved in the cabinet meeting. Therefore, the draft development plan of PMRDA got an additional extension of six months.

This extended period was to expire on December 20 2023. For this, a meeting was called under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister on December 5. However, this meeting was cancelled. So, the State Government extended the time period for the draft plan by one month, citing the reason for the interim Gram Panchayat elections.

As this extended period is ending on January 27 2024, a meeting has been called to approve the plan under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister on January 24. After approval, the plan will be sent to the state government for final approval.

The draft development plan is as follows:

· Inclusion of 814 villages of Pune district in the draft development plan of PMRDA.

· A development model of 233 villages is proposed through 18 Urban Growth Centers (Nagarik Vikas Kendra) within PMRDA.

· An area of 1,638 square kilometres will be developed through this model.

· Development planning through eight growth centres for the rest of the rural areas.

· A growth centre will include at least 5 to 24 villages.

· Also includes the ‘Comprehensive Traffic Plan’ prepared by ‘PMRDA’ through ‘L&T’ company.