Pune: The Pune Cantonment Board (PCB) conducted an anti-encroachment drive at 900 Bootee Street, besides the newly constructed Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) on Saturday. 

Nine residents and three commercial establishments had encroached the premises for more than 50 to 60 years in the area of around one acre. These encroachments were a huge hindrance for the STP project and thus, PCB had to construct the plant on only one acre which was available to them. 

According to a senior engineer of PCB, the Board initiated proceeding under section 4 (1) of the Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) (PPE) Act in 1983 for evicting all unauthorised occupants from the encroached area. However, the proceedings were not concluded. The Board then initiated a proposal of constructing 20 MLD STP beside the encroached area which was of one acre. 

The sewage generated from the civil area will be treated, processed and the filtered water will be flown through sewage lines to be laid from the plant to the Mutha river bed.

DN Yadav, Chief Executive Officer of PCB told Sakal Times, "To construct STP, only one acre of space is available, so we had to construct the basins of the STP one above the other. The trial run was to start after the completion of the construction, but due to obstructions created by the unauthorised occupants, it was impossible to start the trial.”

Yadav, said, “The nine residents in 6,000 sq ft vacated the premises a year back to support the early completion of the STP Project. But the three commercial establishments operating in 15,000 sq ft, were not ready to vacate. In 1967, the land was resumed by Ministry of Defence (MoD) from RS Majga, the property owner then. These establishments were tenants of Majga. And since the MoD resumed the land from Majga in 1967, the tenants had no right over it.”

Yadav added, “Now that the area is cleared we can make developments of the STP plant, including laying of main pipeline, water recycling plant, area for compost and area for parking.”