Shiv Sena UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray has blamed a Gujarat architect for the flash floods in Pune saying the riverfront development project (RDP) implemented on the basis of Sabarmati riverfront development model was responsible for the deluge.The riverfront development project is a blind destruction program of Pune and its rivers. The project is going to create trouble for Pune and its impacts have already been seen in the form of floods. This riverfront destruction must be stopped, said Thackeray.“The flash floods in Pune weren’t because of anything else than the unplanned destruction of Pune at the hands of the regime-builder nexus, along with the riverfront development/destruction program put into effect by an architect from Gujarat, wanting to copy-paste the Sabarmati riverfront development model, without understanding the flow of Pune’s rivers,” he said.The Sena (UBT) leader claimed that he had halted the project when he was the minister. “As the then minister for Environment, I had stopped this destruction project and had asked them to re-plan the entire project. However, after our govt was toppled, the Pune Municipal Corporation and the Shinde government have been pushing the project for the last two years. Multiple urban planners and architects from Pune have spoken against it. So have I. This project is going to create trouble for Pune and we can see its impacts already in the form of floods. This riverfront destruction must be stopped,” he said.A river clean-up is necessary, but not debris dumping to turn the river into a concrete bucket, Thackeray added.The Mula-Mutha riverfront development project in Pune has been allotted to HCP Design of Bimal Patel, the chief architect of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet projects – Central Vista in Delhi, Kashi Vishwanath Corridor in Varanasi, Sabarmati Riverfront in Ahmedabad. The Pune Municipal Corporation will spend over Rs 5,500 crore on the improvement and beautification of the Mula-Mutha rivers.However, from the beginning, the project has experienced stern opposition from residents and green activists citing that the project is disturbing the river ecology and will not only cause significant damage to the environment but also a big loss of public money that will be spent on this project.
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