City Centre project set to take off soon

It seems that the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) is yet again keen to start the controversial project of the Centre Business District (CBD) or City Centre. A presentation of the project was made at the civic body on Monday for the civic officials and the corporators. Interestingly, Shiv Sena has extended its support to the project this time.

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) ruled PCMC was keen on starting the project, which has been stalled for two years now. Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar had also given a green signal to the project in a recent meeting with the civic officials and the NCP leaders in Mumbai. However, the state government had scrapped the tender of the project due to several lapses in the tendering process.

PCMC commissioner Shrikar Pardeshi, mayor Mohini Lande, NCP city unit president Yogesh Behl, standing committee chairman Jagdish Shetty and senior corporators of NCP and Shiv Sena attended the presentation of the project on Monday.
PCMC joint city engineer Pravin Tupe said, “The City Centre project was presented with revised rates. The details of terms and condition and future perspective were also explained in the meeting.”

Commenting on the PCMC initiatives, Sena corporator Sulbha Ubale said, “We are convinced that the project will generate income for the PCMC and will add beauty to the twin town. We want total transparency while working on the project.”

Ubale added that last time Sena had opposed the project because of the laxity it possessed. “But this time, PCMC has provided one floor space index (FSI) and Rs363 crore for it. Earlier, three developers had filled the form, but due to strong opposition made by the political parties and social activists the state government scrapped the tender process.”

It is for the third time that the PCMC is inviting bids for the project. PCMC had received very poor response earlier, so it has recalled the tender process and extended the date.

Iconic ambition

PCMC intends to develop the City Centre in the nature of a Central Business District (CBD) on a 35.5 acre plot in Chinchwad near the Autocluster off the Pune-Mumbai highway. PCMC envisions this development as an iconic development in comparison with the existing city centre at Houston in USA or Mumbai’s Mindspace and Bandra Kurla Complex. PCMC intends to develop this project on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) basis for which it required a concept layout for the City Centre.