[sustran] Roads in the Riverbed: District Court Throws out PMC's Appeal

[Sujit Patwardhan]

3 May 2001

To 

Sustran discussion-list members,

I thought you may be interested in reading about our recent sucess in
preventing the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) from going ahead with their
disastrous plan of constructing roads in the riverbed of the Mutha river in
Pune, India.

With good wishes,
--
Sujit Patwardhan



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3 May 2001


Dear Friend,

As you may have read in today's Times of India (Thursday 3rd May 2001) page 3,
Pune Municipal Corporation's Appeal in the District Court against the order of
the Municipal Court restraining PMC from constructing roads and parking
lots in
the Mutha riverbed, was thrown out by the District Court.

This is a major victory for environmental and citizens' groups who have all
along opposed the construction of roads and parking lots in the Mutha
riverbed.
Although Parisar was the litigant in this specific case it was because of the
active support of all the other groups and individuals who took time to attend
the hearings, mobilized public opinion and supported the cause of the
environment of the Pune city that we have won this battle.

We would like to thank all of you for your support and feel confident that
even
in future, whenever the environment is threatened, all groups will come
together as one entity and thwart the attempt. 

We hope that the PMC will ensure that in future it is not led astray by vested
interests and irresponsible elected representatives who continue to act
against
the wider public interest by promoting such destructive schemes without
concern
for the long term good of the city. We also hope that PMC will use this
opportunity to earnestly implement the River Improvement Scheme by ensuring
that the river has a minimum water flow throughout the year (as per
recommendations of the Planning Commission for the 9th Five Year Plan, and as
per the order of the Courts in case of Yamuna waters in Delhi),
installation of
primary sewage treatment plants at a dozen points along the riverbank which
will stop pollutants entering the river water, slum rehabilitation along the
riverbank to stop pollution, and to ensure that solid wastes are not dumped
into the river. 

As for the submersible road already constructed in the riverbed, as predicted
by many, it will be washed away during the monsoons, but to prevent misuse
amounting to contempt of court, the entry points to these roads should be
immediately sealed by erecting barriers to prevent motorized vehicles entering
the roads. Only pedestrians and cycles should have access to these roads. In
the context of traffic management and formulation of a city-wide traffic and
transportation plan (which we have been demanding for a long time), this would
serve as a healthy precedence for recognizing the rights of non-polluting
modes
of travel like walking and cycling and eventually we hope all major roads will
have provisions for safe cycling tracks.

It is time that views of concerned citizens and citizens' groups are taken
into
account when planning the city's development on a sustainable and long term
basis.

With good wishes,

Sujit Patwardhan (Parisar),
Vijay Paranjpye (Gomukh)


PS: For those who may be interested in going through our views on the roads in
the river-bed we are enclosing the article: "Threat to Mutha River" dated 19
March 2000, circulated when this proposal was officially announced for the
first time, just over a year back.

19 March 2000

Threat to Mutha River 

In what can only be described as the most destructive project EVER undertaken
by the Pune Municipal corporation, we are today witnessing the deliberate,
wanton and cold blooded murder of the Mutha river.

This project, which is being pushed through despite the strong opposition
voiced repeatedly by experts, planners, environmentalists and citizens as well
as the majority of the independent members of the Mutha River Improvement
Project Committee set up by the PMC itself not only violates existing National
and International environmental regulations but it also in contravention of
the
Development Plan which has recognized the river as a vital and important
feature of the city and demarcated it as a "no development zone".


The Background

The original proposal for Mutha River Improvement was initiated sometime in
1997-98 during Shri Ramanath Jha's tenure as the Municipal Commissioner. This
proposal consisted of Desalting, removal of debris, prevention of pollution,
plans for completion of central channel, and construction of a submersible
road
of 500 meters length on an experimental basis. The manner in which the
proposal
was introduced, the absence of detailed objectives and modality of inviting
proposals through a competition without preparing a detailed brief let to
widespread criticism from architects, citizens groups and concerned
individuals
who rightly felt that a project dealing with such a precious asset of the city
should include for more details about the objectives, costs, environmental
impact and most of all involvement of the public before inviting proposals
from
architects, planners etc. There was also a very strong reaction to the
"submersible road" even though it was described as experimental.

Several representations were made to the Municipal Commissioner for discussing
this proposal in detail but the Commissioner did not call the concerned
individuals/groups for such a discussion and merely gave vague answers about
what the PMC wanted to achieve in the River Improvement Project - while going
ahead with awarding of the contract to one of the contestants.

A day long seminar was organized under the auspices of the Pune Management
Association at the Poona Club where experts from different fields presented
papers and discussed various aspects of the project. Noted architect Shri
Balkrishna Doshi, Hydrogeologist Dr. Mukund Ghare, Dr. Madhav Godbole (IAS
Retired) Dr. Vijay Paranjpye (Economist) Ms Vandana Chavan (Corporator and
Mayor) and many others concerned about the river were present. Presentations
were also made by representatives of the PMC, PCMC, The Pune River Group (who
had been awarded the contract) to enable the participants to understand the
issue in detail. Shri Ramanath Jha, Municipal Commissioner was also invited
but
did not attend.

The consensus of this workshop/seminar was that priority should be given to
clean the river, stop pollution and sewage from entering its flow, and to
increase the flow of water in the river throughout the year. There was an
equally clear and unambiguous agreement that there should be no commercial
activity of any kind within the river banks and emphatically - that there
should be no submersible roads at any cost. Although these recommendations
were
sent to Shri Jha there was no official response from him.

Some months later another meeting was held at Thermax House, Pune where
experts, environmentalists, representatives from industry and officials from
PMC, PCMC were present - including Shri Ramanath Jha. Commissioner PMC and
Shri
Pravin Kumar Pardeshi, Municipal Commissioner PCMC. In this meeting also there
was a consensus that commercial activity including roads should NOT be
allowed,
the river should be free from pollution and the discharge of water should be
maintained at the minimum designed level at least - throughout the year. Shri
Jha claimed that road was not being planned as part of the River Improvement
Scheme although he was not able to substantiate this when it was pointed
out to
him that road rollers were presently engaged in what looked like a road.

Another seminar was organized at the Mahratta Chamber of Commerce and
Industries by which time Shri Rajiv Agarwal had taken over as the Municipal
Commissioner.

Later during Shri Agarwal's tenure the elected body of the PMC voted to reject
the entire project for various reasons including suspected irregularities,
possible corruption and inflated and exorbitant costs.

A new advisory committee was then set up with a view to reframe the entire
project. Several meetings were held, parameters finalised and proposals
invited
from architects planners etc. After reviewing these in two meetings the
committee came to the conclusion that although many good ideas/concepts were
received from different participants, no single proposal had the potential for
providing a design for the entire project. Hence it was decided that various
concepts proposed in different entries should be used in the actual design of
the project.

It may be pertinent to note that almost all the entries had proposed cleaning
of the river, greening its banks and minimum intrusion by man-made structures.
Even those few who proposed roads or a accepted the existence of the
stretch of
the road already built on an experimental basis, have stipulated that these
should be open only to pedestrians and occasional service vehicle if at all.

Inspite of such a clear verdict to prohibit roads and other commercial
activity
within the river bank it is shocking that the PMC it its meeting on 19
February, 2000, ignoring the strong objections of independent members of the
advisory committee took the totally undemocratic decision to build roads and
parking lots within the river bank. When majority of the independent citizen's
members insisted that their opposition should be recorded in the minutes, the
Municipal Commissioner, and two elected representatives of the PMC (Shri Ujwal
Keskar and Prof. Mathkari both corporators) took the unusual step of
announcing
that the proposal for the road and parking was being deleted from the agenda,
forestalling adverse opinion of independent members from being recorded.

The following members present at this meeting have recorded their
opposition to
the proposal for roads and parking lots in the river bank Dr. Mukund Ghare
(Hydrogeologist) Dr. Vijay Paranjpye (Economist & Chairman, Econet), Shri
Sharad Mahajan (Architect & Planner), Shri Prasanna Desai Architect &
Planner),
Shri Sujit Patwardhan (Secretary, Parisar and Member Heritage Committee, PMC
and Member Heritage Committee Mahabaleshwar Panchgani), Ms. Pratima Joshi
(Shelter Associates). Following members of the committee though not present at
this meeting have sent letters to the PMC Commissioner recording their
opposition to roads, parking lots and commercial development within the river
bank - Dr. Mira Bapat (Urban Planner) Dr. R. Bellare (Environment Expert) The
representative from CWPRS.

--
Sujit Patwardhan
Hon. Secretary

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PARISAR
Yamuna, ICS Colony,
Ganeshkhind Road,
Pune 411 007
India
Tel: 022 5537955
Fax: 022 4457354
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