PCMC mayor seeks governor's help over traffic on BRTS route.

Pimpri-Chinchwad mayor Yogesh Behl has sought help from governor K Sankaranarayan to urge the defence minister to allow traffic on the bus rapid transit system (BRTS) corridors in Pimpri Chinchwad.

For more than a year now, the PCMC has been unable to open the BRTS road on the stretch from Mega Mart in Phugewadi to the College of Military Engineering (CME) in Dapodi because of objections by the defence authorities.

Speaking to reporters here, Behl said that a letter was given to the governor in this regard during his visit to various areas of the municipal limits on Tuesday.

In the letter, Behl has pointed out that the PCMC is developing a 45-km BRTS route under the Union government's Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) at a cost of Rs 966.80 crore. The corridors of the BRTS route pass through the CME and the 330 Brigade, which are in possession of the defence ministry.

In the letter Behl said, "Before starting work on the project we had requested the local authority to grant us permission to construct these corridors, parts of which lie within the defence establishments. The PCMC received permission from the Southern Command."

He has further said that later the Union ministry of defence, through its letter dated April 16, 2009, granted official permission for the construction of the BRTS corridors on defence land on condition that a sum of Rs 158 crore be deposited prior to the commencement of the work on the site. By this time, the PCMC had already completed construction of a substantial portion of the BRTS corridor on the defence land.

Traffic on these completed sections of BRTS corridors is not allowed due to the non-payment of the requisite amount to the defence ministry.

Behl has said in the letter that it is beyond the capacity of the PCMC to pay such a huge amount to the defence ministry. The PCMC is trying to seek state government intervention to identify land which can be handed over to the defence ministry instead of the requested amount.

The governor on Tuesday visited the slum rehabilitation project being implemented by the PCMC under the JNNURM scheme at Sector 22 and spoke to the families who have been allotted houses there. Behl, municipal commissioner Ashish Sharma, civic office-bearers, corporators and civic officials accompanied him. Sankaranarayanan also visited the Autocluster in Chinchwad and inaugurated a computer centre at Sai Sanskar, a school for mentally challenged children in Sambhajinagar in Chinchwad.