Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, on Thursday, gave instructions for the scrapping of the Pimpri Chinchwad New Town Development Authority (PCNDTA), established in 1972.

Now, the PCNDTA will be part of the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation and its land bank will be handed over to the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA).

Following the chief minister’s decision, the government will now officially start the process of ending the PCNDTA.

Thackeray is the president of PMRDA. A board of directors meeting was conducted on Thursday via video conferencing.

Of the two authorities - PMRDA and PCNDTA - the role of PCNDTA had become minor and hence it was decided to scrap it.

PMRDA metropolitan commissioner Suhas Diwase said, “The governing body’s meeting has been conducted on Thursday evening. There are two major decisions and one of them is to scrap PCNDTA, as both PMRDA and PCNTDA have the same roles. The area would get merged in PCMC and the land bank will be with PMRDA."

PCNTDA was established in 1972 with a mandate to create a Pimpri-Chinchwad new town, with well thought out goals and objectives.

Since its inception, it has been instrumental in developing urban housing and commercial infrastructure for the rapidly growing population of Pimpri-Chinchwad.

PCNTDA was mandated by the government of Maharashtra to develop 43 sq km to house a population of five lakh citizens. It has till date acquired and developed 10.8 sq km. The area has been developed in sectors comprising housing and commercial use. Civic amenities and urban infrastructure have been provided by the PCNTDA.

Create land bank on the line of MMRDA

Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday instructed PMRDA to create a land bank like MMRDA and develop it accordingly. PMRDA metropolitan commissioner Suhas Diwase said, “The chief minister asked us to create a land bank like MMRDA. Private as well as government land will be acquired by PMRDA to create the land bank."

(With inputs from agencies)