The Pune Inner Ring Road land acquisition process is moving ahead in Kolwadi, with land measurement scheduled to begin on October 15 after affected farmers expressed conditional support for the project at a meeting held in the village on Friday. The Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) has set a target of completing the land acquisition process by the end of December.
The proposed road is intended to ease traffic congestion in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad. The latest meeting was held at the Kolwadi gram panchayat hall in Haveli taluka, following a similar meeting in Manjari Khurd two days earlier. Farmers attending the Kolwadi meeting said they were not opposed to the project but wanted fair compensation for the land and other assets affected by the acquisition.
Deputy Collector for Land Acquisition Vitthal Udmale spoke with the affected farmers and heard their concerns. Branch engineer Kartik Patil, clerk Rohit Chopade and village revenue official Arjun Swami were also present at the meeting.
The Inner Ring Road will be 65 metres wide, with nine-metre service roads planned on both sides. After obtaining the consent of the affected farmers, officials will measure the land and identify the area required for the project. Houses, trees, wells, borewells and water pipelines within the affected area will be recorded through formal inspections by the relevant departments. Officials said compensation would be determined on the basis of these records.
Udmale said the administration would seek details of land sale and purchase transactions from the previous three years after the land acquisition notice is published. The valuation will take into account registered sale deeds and prevailing market rates, he said, adding that steps would be taken to ensure that farmers in Kolwadi were not treated unfairly.
Farmer Nilesh Ghule demanded that affected landowners in Kolwadi receive compensation at rates comparable to those in Manjari Khurd. He said farmers would oppose the project if there was a difference in compensation between the two villages and also requested that land measurement in both locations be conducted on the same day.
Another farmer, Ashok Avhale, said the project could proceed only if landowners received appropriate compensation. He urged the administration to hold a meeting immediately after the measurement process to determine the compensation. Farmers, he said, had adopted a positive position at the first meeting to help move the project forward, but expected the administration to respond positively to their demands.
Udmale said the measurement process in Kolwadi would start on October 15. Once it is completed, the details will be published and a meeting will be held to determine compensation. He said decisions would be taken with the stated aim of ensuring that no affected farmer was treated unfairly. The next formal milestone is the start of land measurement, followed by publication of the measured details and compensation discussions.
