Chakan airport project will get through: CM says in Pune

Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan on Monday said that he would ensure that the airport project at Chakan would be through after acquiring appropriate land. He said that the airport at Navi Mumbai would also be completed after acquiring the 300 to 400 hectare of land.

Chavan was speaking after inaugurating a two-day workshop organised by International Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) at environmental science department of the Bharati Vidyapeeth. Chavan said that for the Chakan airport, the land would be acquired at places where there would not be opposition from the farmers and a new model for compensation will be found. 

He said the government was looking for the appropriate land after which the project would be through as there would be consensus of all the agencies involved. 

As far as the Navi Mumbai airport is concerned, the issue of acquisition of 300 to 400 hectare of land would also be sorted out, he said. “I will ensure that the project is through. He said that even the airport projects at other places like Nagpur would also be completed,” Chavan added. 

While reacting to a question on his remarks on possibility of policy of metered water even for agriculture in the future, Chavan said, “It could be done in the future. At present, the state government would take steps so that entire agricultural activity is brought under drip irrigation, including that of sugarcane.” In the urban areas, the water would have to be provided by meter system like in the Malakapur experiment. “We would have to understand that henceforth we will have to use water and energy judiciously,” the CM said.

Deputy chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, IRIER chairperson Isher Ahluwalia, Bharati Vidyapeeth secretary Vishwajeet Kadam and director of the environmental science department E Bharucha were present at the function. 

‘Razing illegal   constructions is a challenge’

Referring to unauthorised constructions in Pimpri-Chinchwad areas during his inaugural address at the workshop, Chavan said that this issue of razing down these structures was also a political challenge. Chavan said, “The amount of illegal constructions which have come up in PCMC areas is unbelievable and PCMC commissioner Srikar Pardeshi is deploying huge machinery to demolish these structures,” A lot of energy both in terms of material and electricity ultimately was wasted for building these constructions and razing those down, he added. 

We can achieve 4.8% fiscal deficit target: Ahluwalia 

Deputy chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia expressed confidence that the country would achieve 4.8% of fiscal deficit. He said that providing money for the developmental programmes depended on managing the fiscal deficit and he was confident that it would be contained at 4.8%. Ahluwalia said that use of electricity, transport, water and solid waste management were important issues for sustainable cities when urbanisation is on a rise.