PUNE: The Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation has identified over 2,500 structures in the blue floodline areas across the twin cities during its ongoing survey.
The civic body has also served notices to owners of over 50% of these establishments as they plan to initiate a demolition drive against such unauthorized constructions soon, a senior PCMC official confirmed.
This is the first such major survey of constructions in all blue floodline areas across areas being carried out in Pimpri Chinchwad. Blue floodlines on both banks of the river mark the zone where the highest flood discharge of the river reaches on an average of every 25 years.
Manoj Lonkar, deputy municipal commissioner and head of PCMC’s anti-encroachment department, told TOI, “A majority of the structures identified in the blue floodline zone during the survey are located along the Pavana river, which passes through the heart of the city. These are followed by structures along the Mula and Indrayani rivers. The survey also revealed that over 60% of unauthorised constructions identified are residential.”
PCMC commissioner Shekhar Singh had on Aug 23 this year directed civic officials to conduct the survey of all structures in the blue floodline within a week. However, PCMC missed its own deadline, and the survey is yet to be completed.
“Over 80% of the survey work is already done and the remaining will also be, soon. We had halted the survey for some days as civic teams were busy in preparations for Ganeshotsav. But it will resume now,” said Lonkar.
He added that PCMC will focus on the drive against commercial structures in the first phase as residential structures cannot be demolished during the monsoon, as per a high court order. For under-construction structures and temporary structures like tin sheds, the civic body can carry out demolition within 24 hours after serving a notice; for fully completed constructions or stucturtes with residents in it, owners will have to be given a month’s notice before initiating demolition, as per the rules.
The remaining areas where the survey is yet to be completed have a dense population and the number of structures in the blue floodline is likely to increase further, said another PCMC official, choosing to stay unnamed.
The civic body is using drone images captured during the recent property assessment survey to cross-verify the ongoing field survey’s data and will also match it with the floodline notification of 2009, which was shared by the irrigation department for the demarcation of floodlines.
