Urban development minister puts spoke in Pune's bio-diversity park proposalm

Although the efforts to realise the proposed bio-diversity park (BDP) project in the city have been revived recently, minister of state for urban development, Bhaskar Jadhav, made a comment in the state legislative council which may put the project in trouble.

Replying to a calling attention motion by MLC, Anil Bhosale, in the legislative council in Mumbai on Tuesday Jadhav said that the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) would be required to spend its entire revenue of a year (Rs3,000 crore) for development of the BDP, according to a press statement issued by Bhosale.

Pune president of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Vandana Chavan is insisting on retaining the BDP in the development plan (DP). She had earlier said that the required amount for land acquisition would be Rs1,000 crore. Considering the share of central and state governments available for the BDP, the PMC would be required to provide only Rs300 crore.

On Tuesday it became clear from the comment of Jadhav, who also belongs to the NCP, that the PMC would be required to bear the entire burden of developing the BDP, indicating that the BDP as proposed may not be possible.

The BDP is proposed on 1,646 hectares on hills in the 23 merged villages. Of that 688 hectares are owned by government agencies. Privately owned land is 958 hectares. Hence, the PMC would be required to give compensation for only 958 hectares.