PUNE: PMC is set to earn its highest revenue from building permissions at around Rs 2,300 crore in 2023-24 financial year. But this moolah boost comes at a cost, as basic as water, which the civic body was struggling to provide to even existing properties, urban planners said.
Civic officials said the redevelopment of properties was driving the revenue rise for PMC. “The city, with its existing infrastructure, will find it difficult to take the load of increased population and real estate growth. Better civic planning is a must to match the fast-paced real estate development. PMC should focus on projects like town planning schemes with a long-term vision,” senior urban planner Ramchandra Gohad said.
The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) issued 1,709 building permissions in 2023-24 as compared to 956 in the previous financial year. It had last earned its highest revenue from building permissions at Rs 2,100 crore in the 2021-22 financial year.
“The overall civic infrastructure has grown fast in the last few years. Pune is becoming better in terms of liveability. It is attracting more people, so the demand for housing has gone up too,” city engineer of PMC Prashant Waghmare said.
He said the growth of the IT and health sectors was also proving to be a crowd-puller.
The urban planners, however, wondered where the water would come from to meet the rising demand, considering that the city was completely reliant on monsoon.
When posed with the question, water department officials said PMC was making effort to build infrastructure through projects like 24X7 water supply. “The water supply plan for the merged areas is also ready. Around 1,400km-long pipelines will be laid and around 82 overhead tanks will be built to cater to growing population. PMC is also focusing on reducing water wastage and recovery of water tax. All these measures and more will help PMC in providing better water supply to the existing as well future property owners,” a civic official said.
“The deadline for 24X7 water supply project is set for this year. The work on water meter installation is also underway. This will help in better management of water and reduction in transmission losses,” Nandkumar Jagtap, head of PMC’s water supply department, said.
The civic officials said the water demand has gone up because of the rise in population after the merger of villages into PMC limits. After the merger of 23 villages in 2021, PMC has become the biggest municipal corporation in Maharashtra, with its limits spanning 518.77sqkm. The population has increased by around 4 lakh.
