PMC wants to earmark funds for heritage structures

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has proposed to earmark 2% of development charges it gets for building permission for conservation of heritage structures in the city.

The draft development plan (DP) of the city was officially presented to the city improvement committee (CIC) by the civic administration on Friday. Leader of house Subhash Jagtap, chairman of CIC Arun Dhimdhime, municipal commissioner Mahesh Pathak and city engineer Prashant Waghmare were present.

Among the highlights of the draft DP are major provisions for conservation of the heritage structures. Apart from earmarking a fund for conservation of heritage structures, it is also proposed to help owners of heritage structures by way of tax concession.

A concept of ‘Heritage TDR’ to compensate for non-utilisation of space for commercial development due to heritage structure is also proposed.

Reservation for a science centre and a planetarium is proposed near Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics considering then importance of the institute.

Reservations of plots of land for developing multiplexes or to develop art galleries is also proposed in the draft DP, according to a press statement by CIC.