Yes, you heard right! Now Pune has officially become the city with the largest geographical area in Maharashtra.
How Did This Happen?
This has happened when the state government on Wednesday issued an order for extending the boundaries of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to include 23 new villages in the existing city limits.
With this change, the PMC will now have a geographical area of 516.18 sq km.
This has replaced the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), which has 440 sq km area, as the civic body with the largest area.
Not only that, with these new urban limits, Pune also becomes the seventh largest city in the country.
List Of Merged Villages
Interestingly, the PMC has an estimated budget of Rs 8,370 crore for 2021-22, as compared to the Rs 39,038 crore budget of the BMC.
Last year, The state Urban Development department had issued the notification on December 23.
In this notification they have announced its intention to extend PMC boundaries to include the new areas.
Afterward, “the state government has considered the objections and suggestions received to the notification,”.
Further, the order stated that the government has decided to alter the limits of the civic body.
Now, 23 adjoining villages merged in PMC limits are Mhalunge, Sus, Bavdhan Budruk, Kirkatwadi, Pisoli, Kondhwe-Dhawade, Kopre, Nanded, Khadakwasla, Manjari Budhruk, Narhe, Holkarwadi, Autade-Handewadi, Wadachiwadi, Shewalewadi, Nandoshi, Sanasnagar, Mangdewadi, Bhilarewadi, Gujar Nimbalkarwadi, Jambhulwadi, Kolewadi and Wagholi.
A Political Decision
The move to merge the villages is also likely to have political ramifications.
At the start, the ruling BJP in the PMC was earlier reluctant to merge the 23 villages.
According to them, it should be done in phases to ensure proper development of the area, and not because of the civic polls scheduled for early next year.
Although, now it has welcomed the decision of the merger of villages.
On this subject, Mayor Murlidhar Mohol said, “We were never against expanding the city by merging more areas but wanted it to be done in a phase-wise manner for proper development. The civic administration has estimated that Rs 9,000 crore to Rs 10,000 crore will be needed for the development of basic civic facilities in the new areas. The state government should provide the necessary funds for development of new areas,”.
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