Civic body to go ahead with project despite unfavourable reports from Environment and Irrigation ministries
Civic body to go ahead with project despite unfavourable reports from Environment and Irrigation ministries
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The civic body, it seems, is in no mood to listen to anybody. RTI applications have revealed that the Pune Municipal Corporation's (PMC) plan to make Mula and Mutha rivers navigable has received unfavourable reports from the Environment and Irrigation ministry. Yet, it has decided to go ahead with the plan.
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| Troubled waters: The PMC is allegedly using funds allocated for river restoration to carry out the navigation project. |
Yadwadkar said the proposal, prepared by city-based Naik Environmental Research Institute Ltd (NERIL), was forwarded to the Irrigation Department and the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) for approval in 2008 and the Central Design Office (CDO), Nashik, in 2009. "All the departments wrote letters to the PMC pointing out severe lacunae in the project," he said.u00a0
u00a0In a letter written in 2008, Dr B Das, a member of the MoEF's Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC), had pointed out a flaw in the NERIL report, which stated the city's current water demand was 11.47 tmc for a population of 30 lakh. It projects an increase to 25 tmc in 2021. Dr Das' letter says that with the projected increase in the NERIL report, enough water will not be available for navigational purposes. "With this figure (25 tmc), the flow in the Mutha river will get significantly reduced and adequate draught for navigation may not be available," the letter said.u00a0
u00a0Another letter by Dr AK Bhattacharya dated February 7, 2008 has pointed out several methodological errors regarding certain statistical figures in the NERI report. "The report cannot be considered as pre-feasibility report. At the most it may be termed as an opinion conceived by the PMC," the letter said.
Both the Irrigation Department and the CDO said going ahead with such a plan could create flood-like situations. The Irrigation Department said that reduction in the cross-sectional area of the riverbed would result in obstruction of water levels. The CDO said flood levels would increase from 1m to 3.5m. "The CDO also said that the question of approving the project does not even arise, apart from consultation on hydrological issues," Yadwadkar said.u00a0
u00a0Yadwadkar further alleged that the funds allocated for the restoration work of the rivers under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) have been diverted by the PMC to carry out work on the navigation project. "The RTI reply I received on December 31, last year, clearly states that no separate funds have been received for the navigational project," Yadwadkar said.
Excavation work on a part of Mutha river that flows below the Kalyaninagar bridge has been underway for the past three months.
The Municipal Commissioner Mahesh Zagade could not reached for his comments.
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