Pune: Wadas, once the seat of power, granduer and conspiracies and considered as the identity of Pune, may all get demolished soon. The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has taken up development of core areas of the city of which wadas are an essential and inevitable part.
The PMC has come up with a cluster policy for redevelopment of centuries old wadas. The policy has given a ray of hope to both tenants and owners of wadas.
The core area of the city consists of 8,000 old wadas with more than 15,000 tenements in pathetic conditions. This part of the city is congested with narrow lanes and lack of basic amenities. To counter these problems, the PMC framed cluster development policy to raise the standard of living of people in this area. This core area includes Shukrawar Peth, Raviwar Peth, Sadashiv Peth, Shaniwar Peth, Narayan Peth, Somwar Peth, Mangalwar Peth, Budhwar Peth, Rasta Peth, Bhavani Peth, Ghorpade Peth, Nana Peth, Ganesh Peth, Kasba Peth, Guruwar Peth and Mahatma Phule Peth.
The decision was taken after the PMC conducted an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and recommended provisions which would help for redevelopment of wadas and congested areas.
Prashant Waghmare, City Engineer of the PMC said, “For development of congested area of the city and providing avenues for better life style to residents, we have made cluster policy and introduced new recommendations. It will be a new era of development core area with cluster policy. We sent the policy along with recommendations to State government for final approval.”
The PMC has defined a cluster as over a minimum area of 1,000 sq metres consisting of two or more properties, accessible by Development Plan (DP) road which is at least 9 metres wide and identified for cluster development.
The cluster policy
According to the policy, the cluster may consist of structures which are more than 30 years old. Every tenant and owner of every building falling under a cluster as on January 1, 2000 shall be eligible for rehabilitation and relocation under the scheme.
No tenants will eligible for rehabilitation if they have been allotted any subsidized housing in the Pune Metropolitan Region by any authority. Tenants and owners who were recorded as occupants of the building as of January 1, 2000 which collapsed on its own or was demolished by the PMC shall also be eligible for cluster redevelopment.
All eligible occupants of the buildings undergoing redevelopment under a cluster will be rehabilitated in the redevelopment buildings. Each eligible occupant will be rehabilitated on a carpet area equivalent to the area occupied in the old building. However, in case of residential occupants such carpet areas shall not be less than 27.87 square metres (300 sq ft) and in case of commercial such carpet area shall be as per actual area in possession. Allotment of rehabilitation tenements for occupants shall be free of cost and without any consideration for the original area.
Any private promoter, co-operative housing society may approach the commissioner with consent of all title holders and consent of 70 per cent eligible tenants other than tenants residing in buildings identified as dilapidated for implementation of cluster redevelopment.
The high-powered committee consists of PMC commissioner as chairman, city engineer, chief fire officer, executive engineer of transport planning department, executive engineer of development plan department of PMC and executive engineer of heritage department of the PMC.
The commissioner will cause formation of co-operative housing societies for each and every building.
The Floor Space Index (FSI) required to rehabilitate the eligible occupiers according to their entitlement, will be considered as Rehabilitation FSI.
