We don't want a paid FSI of 4 in Pune

The city is going to get a metro rail in phases. The PMC GB is due to consider a proposal to have a paid FSI of FOUR - over and above existing FSI limits for areas around the BRT and Metro rail. The proposal is in the Government wikia web site mentioned above.

If one reads the proposal one finds the opening paragraph describe the reasons why the city is growing...I.T, industrial and educational sectors (each of which have been encouraged and incentivised by the state and local Governments) and attribute this as the reason why huge number of people are coming into the city. Owing to this influx, the resolution says, there is a problem of public transport. Then instead of dis incentivising this self confessed cause of government aided growth and congestion, the Government decides that the Metro rail is needed.

It then says an SPV is needed to execute the project. Then it jumps to augmenting paid FSI and "densification" of BRT and METRO corridors. While increased congestion and population was the reason for the Metro, now the need for higher ridership on the Metro becomes reason for densification along both BRT and Metro corridors! This is an astonishing circular proposal!

The Metro and BRT corridors are going to spread all over the city. If one takes 0.5 km on either side of the Metro and combines it with 200 metres on either side of the BRT roads it will effectively cover the entire city. One can see that this is going to be the single largest proposal to boost congestion and FSI in the city.

In the entire proposal, having correctly identified the original 'sin' (of promoting I.T., education and industry in Pune to the exclusion of all other cities of Maharashtra that remain starved of development), not a single word has been uttered to stop this flow of 'hordes' (the translation of 'londhe' in Marathi) of people into Pune. The people who govern our destinies and who are making a blue print for the next thirty years and planning to spend over ten thousand crores of rupees of public money have based their plans on such weak thinking. The increase in FSI benefits the building community and land owners along these areas. The entire Metro proposal has been hijacked into an FSI augmenting proposal!

To understand the extent of additional construction by just this one proposal, using figures given in the DPR, one finds an amount of Rs 18908 crore rupees will be generated over the years. This amount will be generated at an expected rate of Rs 5000 per sq metre or Rs 500 per sq foot. This works out to nearly 380 million square feet (38 million sq metres) of additional construction in the city sanctioned over and above what is already permitted by existing regulations It will all be along the Metro and BRT tracks.

The FSI is basically an index that defines the capacity of the area to accomodate people. It is not just the plot area that needs to be taken into account, but also road widths, water supply and sewage disposal, besides traffic , fire brigade, environmental concerns, heritage structures in the area and so on. However blanket empirical proposals to raise FSI and congestion are being drafted and forwarded by the learned Municipal Commissioner to the General body for approval!!

The proposal for augmenting the FSI needs to be fought tooth and nail. Pune and most Indian cities are extremely congested and 'densified' (as it is) in comparison to most planned cities elsewhere. To promote further densification and do nothing to slow down growth is condemning this city to become nothing more than a gaothan. The officials and politicians who serve their term here may retire and live in any of the newer well planned hill stations or farm houses around Pune, but the citizens of the city have no escape from the consequences of this proposal.

Uday S Kulkarni