Pune: PMC standing committee on Thursday approved Rs 30 crore for acquiring land to develop a 30-metre-wide road to improve connectivity to Lohegaon airport. The civic administration plans to acquire around 14,600sqm of land for the proposed road, which will be developed beyond 509 Chowk towards the airport.The road project, under consideration for several years, has gained urgency as the airport undergoes expansion and new facilities come up in the vicinity. Officials said the existing 12-metre-wide access road and the stretch beyond 509 Chowk were expected to be affected by the airport expansion plan, necessitating an alternative route to manage rising traffic. PMC has already approved the road alignment, while the sanctioned Rs 30 crore will be used to compensate landowners.Standing committee chairperson Shrinath Bhimale said PMC was taking steps to strengthen airport connectivity in tandem with the airport’s expansion.In another major infrastructure decision, the standing committee approved a Rs 73-crore flyover at the Wakdewadi subway to ease traffic congestion. The proposed flyover will begin near Sakhar Sankul, pass over railway tracks and connect to the old Mumbai-Pune highway.PMC has already appointed an agency to undertake the project’s technical study and design. Bhimale said elected representatives had long demanded the flyover, arguing that the existing subway was inadequate to handle growing traffic volumes. Funding for the project will be provided over the next two financial years.API-based building permission system approvedThe standing committee also cleared the introduction of an Application Programming Interface (API)-based system for building permissions. PMC has signed a memorandum of understanding with the state’s Settlement Commissioner and Director of Land Records for the initiative. The pilot project will be rolled out in Kothrud and Baner and is expected to streamline the issuance of certificates and approvals required for building permissions, making the process faster and more transparent.
