123Pune.com

Pune, August 31 Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Sunday reiterated that the Pune Metro rail would be a “non-starter” if the Pune Municipal Corporation should go ahead with its plan to run it across the Agriculture College’s 60-acre greens.

“If the PMC is banking on the 60 acres of land owned by Agriculture College in Shivajinagar for the Pune Metro Rail, then the project would be a non-starter,” Pawar said. He had said much the same to Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh during a recent meeting organised to discuss the city’s traffic and transport problems.

Talking to reporters, Pawar said the PMC had made a presentation on the Pune Metro in the meeting. It showed the college’s 60 acres in its plans.

“From my experience, it has never been easy to get land owned by Agriculture College for development work. The green belts are the lungs of cities and there is a need to preserve them,” Pawar said, adding that it was improper to seek the land when the Agriculture College is completing 100 years.

The land with 100 years of history houses three institutes — Agriculture College, Horticulture College and Hi-tech Polyhouse where young farmers are given training.

“Citizens and environmentalists will never allow use of green land for the Metro rail project,” he said.

However, the Metro rail is important for city, Pawar conceded, adding it was suggested that the open land of the Defence Ministry close to the Agriculture College could be used instead.

The project should be planned in a manner that it does not eat into controversial land or runs the risk of getting stuck in legal matters that would cause a cost escalation and a delay in completion, he added.

Pawar said he had a detailed discussion on improving inner and outer roads of the city for better mobility.

Pawar’s observations, which he had also made a few days earlier, have already forced the civic administration to look for alternate land to avoid a delay in the project, work on which is likely to begin next year.
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