The civic body plans to ensure 79 per cent of green embankments to reduce the risk of flooding with 33.9 km of rural riparian, 38.8 km of urban riparian and 19.8 km engineered sections.(Express Photo: Arul Horizon, File) The Pune Municipal Corporation has completed the tender process for two stretches of its Mula-Mutha river rejuvenation project and will be opening the bids this week. The civic body is likely to issue a work order in the next few days and plans to lay the foundation stone in a grand function.
The rejuvenation project, modelled on the Sabarmati riverfront in Ahmedabad and approved in 2016, includes the development of 44 km of river stretch, including 22.2 km of Mula river, 10.4 km of Mutha river and 11.8 km of Mula-Mutha river.
The PMC has also decided to include the beautification of an 8-km stretch from Bangalore-Mumbai bypass to Aundh bridge as a priority stretch along with a 5.3-km stretch from Yerwada to Mundhwa bridge and a 3.7-km stretch from Sangam to Bund Garden.
The Rs 4,727-crore project is being implemented to clean the rivers and make them pollution-free. Reducing the risk of flooding, making the entire riverbank accessible to the public, retaining water, integrating existing heritage structures, recreational, religious and socio-cultural activities on the riverfront are some of the other objectives of the project.
Under the proposed project, the PMC plans to construct 11 new sewage treatment plants of 396 million litres per day (MLD) capacity, lay 113.6 km of sewers and construct 24 community toilets.
The civic body plans to ensure 79 per cent of green embankments to reduce the risk of flooding with 33.9 km of rural riparian, 38.8 km of urban riparian and 19.8 km engineered sections.
To make the river accessible to the public, the civic body wants to develop 50 new ghats, in addition to the 20 existing ones and proposed 270 new access points to the river, apart from the 53 existing ones.
The project will also bring in major changes in road infrastructure in areas alongside the river. The roads within the riverbed from Mhatre bridge to Deccan bus stop and Shaniwar peth to Shaniwarwada would be removed completely while alternative roads would be strengthened to take on the vehicular load. “We have proposed new roads for better connectivity on either side and across the river while removing few roads in the riverbed,” said municipal commissioner Vikram Kumar.
The project would be implemented in 768 hectares of land, which includes 687 hectares of river land, while 81 hectares of land would be acquired to ensure continuous embankments alongside the river.
“The project mitigates flood, improves river health by intercepting the sewage, and defines river edge. In places, where thin slivers of land become available, these are sensitively used for augmenting and increasing public parks, gardens, amenities and infrastructure. There will be cycle tracks for pedestrians and cyclists,” said officials.
Meanwhile, environmentalists oppose the project saying that it would destroy the ecology and increase flooding.”The city is already a flood-prone area so what is the need for a river beautification project. Is the civic administration working under some pressure to implement the project?” said environmentalist Sarang Yadwadkar.
After Yadwadkar raised concern about possible floods due to the project, the state water resources department put the onus on the PMC. “We are once again conveying that the PMC should ensure that there should be no obstacle in the flow of river water. The water carrying capacity of the river should not be reduced and there should not be any changes made to the river. If there is an obstacle to the flow of river water then the water resource department would take action against the work,” the water resources department said recently.
“Also, the local civic body would be solely responsible for the loss of life and property due to possible floods due to the development work in prohibitive and restrictive zones of the river”, it said.
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