Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Commissioner Shekhar Singh, in an exclusive interview with The Free Press Journal, clarified that the Riverfront Development (RFD) project has not been halted.
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"At only a 400-metre stretch near the Ramnadi sangam (confluence), we are trying to redesign based on the suggestions from a few civil society organisations. The rest of the project is going very well, on track. Some of the media organisations reported that the project has been halted. I would want to clarify that the project hasn't been halted. We are trying to see how to best redesign, as there is a confluence, and we can avoid cutting a few trees," Singh said.
He said that he likes to call it the "River Rejuvenation project" and emphasised that it is very different from that on the Sabarmati River in Gujarat.
"The RFD project hasn't come in a single day. When we go for a project of this scale, it goes without saying that we take absolute care with regard to taking regulatory approvals. We took 7–8 years to get the approvals. In between, a few citizens approached the National Green Tribunal (NGT). Later, after getting the clearances, NGT disposed of the petition. The Bombay High Court has also refused to entertain the petitions going forward," he said.
However, Singh mentioned that there will be some ecological impact despite taking all necessary precautions. He also called upon citizens, environmental activists and civil society organisations for a robust dialogue if they had any opposition.
"When we are doing development, we must take care that the ecology isn't harmed. The water that you drink from Pawana—the dam wasn't built out of a desert—it was a thriving forest. But a dam needed to be built because the city required water. So when we develop, we can try to have the least ecological impact, but there will always be some impact. The effort has to be to reduce it as much as possible," he concluded.
The project, which is estimated to cost ₹275 crore, spans a 20 km stretch in the PCMC jurisdiction.
