PUNE, Jan 3: Bowing to the pressure from all party corporators, the municipal corporation has finally decided to invite fresh proposals for the ambitious river beautification project. A delegation of corporators today called on Municipal Commissioner Rajiv Agarwal and complained that a few civic officials were unnecessarily insisting that they should accept one of the seven proposals which the corporation had received earlier. The corporators questioned the propriety of considering the same proposals as the general body had already rejected a proposal by Pune River Group, which was selected as the best among the seven pending proposals.The letter signed by Vikas Matkari, Shiva Mantri, Ujwal Keskar and Vandana Chavan said the municipal corporation should finalise its requirements of the project and then call for fresh proposals. The letter has stated that the corporation had already finished a major portion of channelising the river while work along the river bank was also in progress. The letter said the corporation should undertake massive tress plantation and treatment plan for sewerage in the river to bring down the pollution. The letter said the the civic staff was capable to all these works without involving outside parties. Matkari and Mantri later told media persons that municipal commissioner had accepted their demand to call for fresh proposals. They said the interested parties would be asked to submit their proposals and ideas on river beautification within a month.It may be recalled that the general body had unanimously rejected a proposal by Pune River Group in August last describing it as ``unrealistic and expensive.'' Agarwal later formed a 22 member committee, comprising of corporators, civic officials and environmentalists to chalk out a plan for river beautification. The committee is scheduled to meet on Monday at CWPRS at Khadakwasla where all the details and maps of the river flowing through the city are available.
