More than 500 villages in the district do not have land for setting up sewage treatment and solid waste management plants.
Pune Zilla Parishad chief executive officer (CEO) Ayush Prasad has sought plots from district collector Rajesh Deshmukh in those villages in a letter dated January 4.
He said considering the growth of industries in rural areas, there is a need for solid waste management plants and sewage treatment plants (STPs). Prasad added that the ZP has prepared a detailed project report (DPR) about construction of the STPs, but lack of land is a major problem.
“Government land, where available in villages, could be used for the purpose of waste management and STPs. There are 241 such villages out of 539, where some government land is available, and plants could be built there,” he said.
According to Prasad, there are four solid waste management and sewage treatment plants in the district at Junnar, Khed and Mulshi talukas. “There are over 1,400 gram panchayats in the district and work on 50 solid waste management and sewage treatment plants will begin soon for which the budgetary provision is being worked out. Once it is achieved, around 1,350 gram panchayats will be involved in the next phase for the construction of the STPs,” he said.
Prasad said, “The solid waste management plant and STPs could prove helpful.”
He said one officer has been stationed at the district collector’s office from the Pune ZP to liaison for land request and find out if there are any issues with available land.
