Builders developing housing projects in Pune’s 32 newly merged villages will have to arrange and pay for residents’ water supply until the Pune Municipal Corporation begins providing an adequate service at sufficient pressure, under a revised civic policy issued this week.
The policy requires developers to accept responsibility for water supply for at least three years or until the PMC starts actual supply, whichever is later. Developers will have to provide water through borewells, tankers or temporary storage facilities and bear the associated supply and maintenance costs.
The revised requirements apply at multiple stages of a project, including the building permission, completion certificate and occupancy certificate stages. Developers must submit updated undertakings with their building permission proposals, according to an official circular issued by PMC City Engineer Aniruddha Pawaskar.
The 32 villages were brought within PMC limits in two phases, on October 4, 2017, and June 30, 2021. The expansion increased the civic body’s administrative area, but several newly merged locations have continued to face gaps in water infrastructure and service delivery. In some housing projects, residents have reportedly been paying for private tankers after developers sold the flats, despite earlier assurances about water supply.
Developers had previously been required to submit undertakings promising adequate water supply before securing building permissions. However, the PMC said shortcomings in the earlier format made it difficult to establish responsibility and take firm action when supply arrangements were discontinued.
“We were unable to fix developers’ responsibility because of shortcomings in the undertakings related to water supply in the merged villages. As a result, the municipal corporation had to face the ire of residents. Therefore, a revised policy has now been formulated,” Pawaskar said, according to the report.
The new policy also requires developers to disclose their water supply obligations in sale deeds, allotment letters and documents connected with the registration of cooperative housing societies. Booking agreements for residential flats and commercial units must explicitly state the developer’s responsibility for arranging water.
Water supplied through tankers or borewells will have to undergo laboratory testing. Developers will be responsible for ensuring that the supplied water meets appropriate quality standards, in addition to maintaining the physical supply system.
The policy follows directions issued by Mayor Manjusha Nagpure during a general body meeting. The PMC Building Permission Department had earlier warned developers over the issue, but the administration’s revised framework is intended to link water commitments more clearly to project approvals and occupancy-related permissions.
Developers who stop supplying water in violation of the policy may face penalties, suspension of permissions, restrictions on new approvals and criminal action in serious cases. The PMC’s stated next step is to apply the revised undertaking requirements to building permission proposals in the merged villages.
