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indianexpress: THE Rs 16-crore plan to relay the entire sewage system in the Pune cantonment area has received a big boost with the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and the Pune Cantonment Board (PCB) to set up a sewage treatment plant at Mangalwar Peth within 12 months.

As per the MoU signed on Thursday evening, PCB will share construction costs of the 30 million litre per day (MLD) sewage treatment plant (STP) by contributing Rs 5.8 crore. The PMC in turn will allow PCB to discharge its entire sewage, estimated to be over 20 MLD, into its system for treatment and disposal.
 
In addition, PCB will pay an annual maintenance fee of Rs 86 lakh for the upkeep of the plant. The PMC will maintain the entire trunk sewer network in the PCB area at Manik Nalla and lay additional lines for carrying the waste to its STP in Mangalwar Peth.

“It is a milestone for both civic bodies. There has been a big sewage problem in the cantonment area and now within the next 12 months we will hopefully have efficient disposal of waste,” PCB president Brig R J Sharma said.

The existing sewage system, laid nearly 60 years ago to cater to a population of 20,000 residents, has almost collapsed and frequently overflows. Recently, there has also been an increase in the number of complaints regarding drinking water supply in the cantonment area as collapsed sewage lines infect the drinking water lines. Residents have also reported incidents of sewage waste mixed with water supply in various parts of the cantonment area.

The main sewers on all major roads, which run full on peak hours, also overflow during the monsoon and heavy rain. The system, which is connected to PMC’s sewage system, will now get new lines with broader sewage pipes.

The new sewage system has been designed to take care of all needs within the cantonment area till 2025. Designed for a population of 1.22 lakh, it had been in the pipeline for the past year as the PCB was awaiting funds from the Centre.

indianexpress:  THE Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) on Pune-Satara Road may have had battlelines drawn over it but the bus shelters that line the route and the ones at Mahatma Gandhi bus stand in Pulgate are head-turners.

The reddish peach coloured semi-circular bus stands on the BRTS route rise above the road for passengers to step into the Volvo buses. The shelters have a telephone, newspaper rack, coffee vending machine and water cooler under its shade.

The brains that designed the swanky bus shelters are a group of third year students from Abhinav Kala Mahavidyalaya, the city’s premier architecture school.

“We wanted fresh minds to help us with the design. So, when I went to the college to lecture on designing bus shelters, I bounced the idea in the class,” said PMT spokesperson D A Pardeshi. Later, he asked the third year batch to design a bus shelter.

The students grabbed the opportunity. “During the course, we have been making designs of commercial complexes, multiplexes and buildings. Though designing a bus shelter was not a huge task, we had to adapt to the situation since the bus shelters were for the BRTS that was to be implemented for the first time in the city,” said team member Ajay Mane.

The students’ exercise began by looking up the designs in the Colombian city of Bagota where the BRTS is a huge success. “We had to design a model keeping the Pune’s needs and the commercial aspect. In our design we have tried to accommodate a telephone, a newspaper rack, a coffee vending machine. An e-ticket machine, which will be instaled, has also been incorporated,” said Mane.

To get the best out of the students, the class was divided into different groups with principal S G Bhate, design professor P M Kavinde and visiting faculty Vijaya Srinivasan taking charge of the groups. The designs were then presented to former PMT general manager Niranjan Kumar Sudhanshu last year. “Once they were approved, the designs were later presented before the Pune Municipal Corporation,” said Abhijeet Mahajan.