PMC to acquire land for road-widening projects via credit bond

PUNE: As land acquisition is proving to be a major hurdle in the completion of road-widening projects such as Katraj to Kondhwa and Shivane to Kharadi with land owners asking for cash compensation, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is planning to introduce credit bonds (reverse convertible bonds) to take the project forward.

Initially, TDR (transferable development rights) and FSI (floor space index) was offered to the land owners as compensation but they rejected the same in favour of cash. The cash-strapped PMC could ill afford this as cash compensation for the Katraj to Kondhwa road-widening project alone would have cost it a whopping Rs700 crore.