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TOI : PUNE: Taking a leaf out of the Magarpatta township project at Hadapsar, farmers’ activist and corporator, Dattatray Sane, has proposed a similar plan in Pimpri-Chinchwad where about 80 farmers would pool their land and develop a special township with all amenities.

Speaking to TOI, Sane said the project is planned to be implemented on 500 acres of land behind More Vasti along the Chikhli Talawade road, about 10 km from Chinchwad.

He said nearly 500 acres of land is available in the area for development but farmers here are apprehensive that their land will be acquired for defence projects. They are buckling under pressure and selling off their lands to private developers for paltry sums. However, they are now being convinced not to sell their land.

While, currently, land prices in the area are around Rs 2.5 crore per acre, some of the farmers have sold them off for less than Rs 40 lakh. “There are about 80 farmers in the area and almost all of them have agreed to the idea of forming a company where land would be pooled for a special township project. This will benefit the farmers for generations together. For several years, the farmers have been at the receiving end. It is high time the farmers get the real benefit,” Sane said. Sane is an activist who has held campaigns against the merger of fringe villages into the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation limits. Chikhli was one of the 18 villages that were merged in PCMC limits in September 1997. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: The city was hit by a major power breakdown that lasted for almost two hours on Sunday afternoon owing to a technical snag at the Lonikand 400 KV sub-station. This station is the one of the main sources, from where the city draws its power supply.

The breakdown, which occurred at 2 pm, could not have come at a worse time, since the city has been reeling under heatwave-like conditions for the past few days — with temperatures soaring to over 42 degree Celsius and coming down to 40.6 degree Celsius on Sunday.

N.K. Bhise, superintending engineer of Maharashtra state electricity transmission company (MahaTransco), explained that a snag occurred in the inter-connecting transformer (ICT) at Lonikand and caused a cascading effect on the ICTs located elsewhere at Bhosari, Khadki, Theur, Jejuri, Khandalagaon and Chinchwad. “Our staff attended to the problem promptly and restored the power supply within two hours of the breakdown,” he said.

Bhise told TOI that, apart from Pune city, neighbouring Pimpri-Chinchwad was also affected by the breakdown. He added that the authorities would conduct an inquiry, including technical tests, to ascertain the exact reasons that led to the snag.

Later, Maharashtra electricity distribution company limited (MahaDiscom) issued a release stating that the Lonikand ICT Nos 1 and 3 tripped, along with the 220 KV Bhosari, Khadki, Theur I & II lines, also tripping the ICT at 400 KV Jejuri sub-station and 220 KV Khandalagaon and the Sahara Lines at Chinchwad sub-station at around 2 pm. The problem could be solved only by 4 pm.

Meanwhile, activists termed the incident as a serious problem and sought an independent inquiry into the matter. “A probe should be ordered and the outcome of the same made public,” Vivek Velankar of the Sajag Nagarik Manch said. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: Representatives of the Suvarna Sahakari bank account holders, depositors and members’ committee will hold a day-long token fast in front of the bank’s head office at Deccan Gymkhana here on Monday.

The fast is to protest against the “misleading information” provided by the bank’s administrator, Sanjaykumar Bhosale, regarding the hypothecation received against Rs 100 crore loans extended by the bank in the past. The committee members held a meeting on Sunday to discuss the issue.

In a release issued later, the committee members said, “Bhosale has misinformed people by announcing receipt of hypothecation against Rs 100-crore debt. They demanded that the bank should produce hypothecation papers if the same was true.”

The Suvarna Sahakari Bank had earlier landed in trouble because of non-performing assets exceeding the tolerance limit. The Reserve Bank of India has since imposed restrictions on the bank and an administrator was appointed by the registrar and commissioner of cooperatives. The bank had deposits of over Rs 725 crore. Around Rs 400 crores of the depositors’ money have been recovered. Some of the property of the leading director of the bank, Dnyaneshwar Agashe, worth Rs 200 crore was recovered as mortgage. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: The city’s traffic branch has banned the plying of all vehicles passing via Hotel Sadananda on Baner road to University of Pune from Monday for the road widening and concretisation work in the view of the Commonwealth Youth Games scheduled to be held in October this year. However, the residents here will be allowed to use the road. The police has appealed to the public to use alternate routes from Sus-Pashan road to University of Pune, Wakad octroi post to Sangvi and Aundh to University of Pune.

The public has been asked to use the road passing through Aundh, Rajiv Gandhi bridge, Wakad junction for going to Mumbai from Pune. The police said that traffic will be diverted from Kala Khadak chowk on Katraj – Dehuroad bypass in Wakad from Monday for the construction of a subway. The police have requested people to observe the changes. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: A 35-year-old woman died in a freak accident at a high-rise residential construction site at Balewadi after a cement-bag filled handcart, which was being lifted by a trolley, fell on her from the sixth floor of the nine-storeyed structure.

The police have booked the project manager, the building contractor and the site engineer on charges of negligence leading to death after it was prima facie established that they had taken no proper measures to ensure safety of workers at the site.

The tragic death of the female worker once again brought to the fore the oft-repeated concern over the safety of workers at construction sites. More so, when the city is passing through an unprecedented boom in the construction industry with a large number of projects coming up to a mushrooming effect in the fringe areas around Pune.

Police said, the incident occurred around 1.55 pm on April 25 at the site being developed by Origa Developers. The company had outsourced the construction work to a contractor, police added.

Vatsala Jeevraj Shinde, the victim, was working on the ground floor near the lift-trolley that was pressed into service for lifting the hand-cart. As it was moving up and reached a height of nearly 60 ft, the trolley suddenly hit a wall and the resultant jerk had the cement hand-cart falling down. Even before Vatsala could anticipate what was happening, the hand-cart fell on her, causing grievous head injuries, police said, and added that the victim died on the spot.

Project manager Sadique Shaikh, contractor Siddhu Dharma Rajnagi and the site engineer, who was not identified by the police, were booked for the offence of negligence causing death. However, no arrest was reported till late Sunday evening. Sub-inspector M.N. Joshi told TOI that the workers engaged at the construction site were doing plastering work on the sixth floor and…More