The standing committee of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) yesterday approved the civic administration’s proposal to hire a private consultant to assess the real estate development impact in the Metro’s transit oriented development (TOD) zone.
The civic administration has declared Floor Space Index (FSI) of 4 along the TOD zone (within a 500m radius of the Metro stations). Factors such as road width, plot size and distance of a plot from a station will be considered while allotting the FSI.
“The allotment of the additional FSI will certainly put pressure on the civic infrastructure and municipal services. Amenities have to be improved for this. A study by the consultant will focus on all these factors,” standing committee chairperson Hemant Rasane said.
“The current status of development along the TOD zone and the future prospects will be studied. The consultant will suggest ways of sustainable development along the TOD zone,” said Yuvraj Deshmukh, a senior official in the PMC’s building permission department.
“The study will be carried out in accordance with the state and the Centre’s directives within nine months. The study will focus on all Metro corridors. The impact of development along the Bus Rapid Transit System and High Capacity Mass Transit Route areas will also be assessed,” he said.
The state government had in March last year announced transit oriented development in a 500m radius around Metro stations in the city and fixed the maximum permissible FSI at 4. The government had then told the PMC to undertake an impact assessment study of the policy and prepare a comprehensive action plan.
As per the PMC’s proposal, the consultant will base the study on factors such as the existing situation analysis, demography, transport, parking, street network, urban block and non-motorized transport.
Meanwhile, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has already started the process of giving permissions for construction of buildings under the Transit Oriented Development (TOD) policy within the radius of 500 m from the stations of mass transport system.
“The state government approved the TOD policy for the city on March 9 last year, while directing the PMC to carry out the impact assessment of it. We have already started the process of giving permissions to buildings under TOD,” said Yuvraj Deshmukh, superintendent engineer of the PMC.
He said there will be no problems in giving permission to the building construction proposals even before the impact assessment of the TOD policy.