Pune: In a move to eliminate chronic delays in infrastructure projects, the PMC has introduced strict conditions linking building permissions to acquisition of land for road widening.Under the new mandate, developers must now submit a formal proposal to hand over any land likely to be affected by road-widening within 15 days of seeking building permission. Crucially, the land must be physically handed over to the civic body before the new building reaches the “plinth level” (the base of the structure). A circular to this effect was issued by the civic body’s building permission department recently.“We will be conducting strict monitoring of this process,” said Aniruddha Pawaskar, the city engineer of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).The policy shift comes as PMC data reveals a significant deficit in the city’s road network. Currently, only about 9% of Pune’s total land area is dedicated to road infrastructure, far below the urban planning benchmark of 15%.Historically, the civic administration struggled to acquire land from private owners, often leading to bottlenecks where new buildings were completed while the roads in front of them remained narrow. In many instances, land was not surrendered even after the road projects were officially completed, resulting in years of litigation and traffic congestion.The city’s current road network spans 2,273 km, but the pressure is concentrated on just 32 arterial roads. These roads, totaling 270 km, carry nearly 80% of Pune’s traffic. Officials believe that streamlining land acquisition is the only way to augment these high-pressure corridors.The PMC has set ambitious goals for the coming years, aiming to increase the city’s road network by 10.75% during the 2026-27 financial year. Key highlights of the plan includeimprovement of junctions. An allocation of Rs5 crore has been made to upgrade 30 major junctions to ease congestion. The civic body has also planned to develop at least one road of international standard in each of 32 merged villages.
