Pune: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has failed to meet the deadline for completing the new extension wing of the main. Politicians, especially of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), were expected to inaugurate the building on February 15 as it is the foundation day of the corporation. The civic body will need another month to complete the construction of the building.
On April 6, 2015, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Chief Sharad Pawar was present for the brick laying ceremony of the extension part of the building. Against the backdrop of the merger of fringe villages in the municipal corporation limit, NCP had taken the decision of extension of the building as the existing seating capacity of general body halls and other political parties offices would face space crunch after the merger of villages and addition of new members.
The work had started in April 2015 and the administration had set a deadline of April 2018 to complete the building extension work. However, the political party wanted to complete building before February 15, 2018.
While speaking to Sakal Times, Sandeep Khandve, Chief Superintendent Engineer of Building Construction, said, “The doom of the extension building took more time so we could not complete the project on time. The building work is complete but only the interior and electrical work is underway. It will take one month to complete the entire building.”
The wing has about 18,000 square metres open space. There will be all major officer reception counters in the space so that people don’t have to search for officers on different floors. On the first floor, there will be offices of all political parties and Standing Committee, City Improvement Committee and all party bearers will be on the second floor. The mayor and deputy mayor will have their offices on the third floor. The general body hall will be on the same floor with a seating capacity of 250 corporators.
The corporation has sanctioned Rs 35 crore for construction of the new wing. The lower and upper ground is reserved for only for parking (150 cars and 150 two-wheelers). The new wing will have the same old archaeological structure with a new interior seating arrangement.
