Pune: Villagers agitate against PMC’s Bhama-Askhed water project, 9 arrested
Pune, September 1, 2020: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) project work for supplying water from Bhama-Askhed dam to the eastern Pune restarted on war-footing with an aim to complete it this year.
However, the project-affected persons (villagers) have started agitating once again, conveying to the State government that they are not getting compensation.
According to Pune rural police, “The work is going under police protection. Despite that, agitators gathered at theproject side in Karanj-vihare village and stopped work on Tuesday (September 1, 2020). They manhandled one police constable. After that, the police arrested nine agitators.”
The project has been delayed due to similar agitations of project-affected persons. After Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s announcement, the PMC resumed work last month. PMC has started work to lay 1.1 km long pipeline under police protection. Till date, the PMC contractor has completed 600 m of work.
What is the Bhama Askhed project?
For solving water supply problem in the eastern part of the city, the civic body planned the project in 2014 to get 2.64 TMC (Thousand Million Litre per cubic feet) from Bhama-Askhed through a closed pipeline which is around 40 kilometer away from Pune.
The eastern part includes Kharadi, Yerwada, Dhanori, Wadgaonsheri, Vishrantwadi, Kalas and Vidyanagar. Project cost was estimated to be Rs 380 crore in 2014, however, due to project-affected people’s agitation and subsequent delay, the cost has gone up to more than Rs 400 crore.
