Pune: The civic body’s general body meeting on Monday approved a proposal to begin the process to prepare a draft development plan (DP) for 23 areas that were merged with the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) in 2021.The proposal also included appointment of city engineer Aniruddha Pavaskar as the town planning officer for the DP work. The proposal was unanimously sanctioned by the corporators. who also asked the administration to prepare the DP without any delay.The formation of a DP for the 23 merged areas faced many technical challenges in the last five years. The initial DP was prepared by the PMRDA, but the state govt cancelled it citing various reasons.The state govt last year appointed the PMC as the planning authority for the merged areas. Following this, the civic body started the process to prepare a fresh DP.Pavaskar, while talking to TOI, said preparation of the DP will include many steps. “The process will start by announcing the intention to prepare a DP. This will be followed by the surveys. Some key studies will include existing land use surveys, study of population trends, housing and socio-economic surveys,” he said.“The PMC will use details from the DP draft prepared by the PMDRA. A seven-member committee will be formed to conduct the hearings of suggestions and objections raised on the draft DP. The civic body also plans to set up a separate DP cell to monitor the DP-related works,” he added.
