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Project Management

Title: LAVASA

Submitted By:

Mrigakshi Singal (09609022)

Sakshi Malhotra (09609105)

Shretima Gupta (09609138)

Aakriti Bhasin (09609139)

Aakansha Karnwal (09609142)

Aayush Rustagi (09609143)

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Contents

1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 3

Location ...................................................................................................................................... 4

Plans............................................................................................................................................ 4

Purposes. ................................................................................................................................... 4

Development .............................................................................................................................. 4

2 Social Initiatives ..................................................................................................................... 5

2.1 Health ........................................................................................................................... 5

2.2 Education ..................................................................................................................... 6

2.3 Employability .............................................................................................................. 6

2.4 Connectivity: ............................................................................................................... 6

3 State Policy ............................................................................................................................. 7

4 Environmental Impact: ......................................................................................................... 7

5 Water resources: .................................................................................................................... 7

6 Geographic Information Systems (GIS) at Lavasa: ........................................................... 8

7 Major issues surrounding Lavasa Project........................................................................... 9

8 Concerns ............................................................................................................................... 12

9 SOLUTION .......................................................................................................................... 13

10 CURRENT STATUS ........................................................................................................... 13

11 References ......................................................................................................................... 14

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Introduction

Lavasa Hill City is free India's first and largest hill city with a sprawling

township spread across the 7 hills of the Mose valley. The area is quite close to

the major cities of Pune and Mumbai and circles the Varasgaon Lake. Lavasa is

just about 65 Kms (an hrs drive) from Pune and about 200 Kms (3.5 hrs) from

Mumbai. Lavasa Hill City covers 25,000 acres with 60 Kms of lakefront. It is

spread amidst 100 sq. Kms, which is almost 1/4th the size of Mumbai.

Lavasa city has been designed on the principles of new urbanism, and is said

to offer the best-in-class infrastructure, international educational institutions,

leading non-polluting industries, exciting avenues of leisure & tourism and

homes for comfortable living. An ecologically sustainable environment will

help you live, work, learn and play in harmony with nature at Lavasa. Over

25,000 lakeside apartments and villas with over 50,000 employment

opportunities should be available at Lavasa city. Apart from its diversity in

work possibilities, Lavasa also present some wonderful housing options for

permanent residents. Some other famous concepts of hill cities, but all

developed during the British Raj, are Shimla, Kullu and Ooty.

The Lavasa project is being developed by HCC India. Although the land is

disputed by some, the master plan for Lavasa has already won 3 Global

Awards. Apart from latest technologies and state-of-the-art connectivity,

Lavasa also assures of world class infrastructure and first class roads. There

are five access routes to the Lavasa city, one of which, the Chandni chowk-

Pune road, has been developed. The first phase of the Lavasa Hill town is

currently under construction and is scheduled for completion in Dec '2009.

The Fortune Select Dasve Hotel is now open at Lavasa while Dasve, the first

town, is expected to be ready by 2009-10.

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Location

Lavasa is located in the Western Ghats, on the banks of the Baji Pasalkar Reservoir behind the Varasgaon Dam (Varasgaon Dam & Reservoir) near Pune and Mumbai. The city is coming up on eight large hillocks that surround the elongated Varasgaon Dam Reservoir. Varasgaon is one of the primary sources of water for Pune city. The project covers approximately 25,000 acres (100 km2) of land. Lavasa is located within 80 minutes from Pune (approximately 50 km) and 3 hours from Mumbai (approx 180 km). There are five access routes to Lavasa, one of which is enhanced and developed.

Plans

Lavasa is planned in four phases out of which, Phase I in Dasve will be operational from 2010 with almost 1,000 villas and 500 apartments. The development of Phase II will begin next year and would be ready by 2014. The third and fourth phases would be ready by 2017 and 2021, respectively. There is a controversy around how clearance has been given to build the new Lavasa city that will draw water from the Varasgaon Dam. The Varasgaon Dam is one of the primary sources of water for Pune city, and Pune city already faces acute water shortage in the months preceding the annual monsoon season. Another controversy is around how forest lands can be given away for commercial purposes.

Development

Development plans of Lavasa consists of four periods and involves the

development of 12 towns spread across 7 hill slopes

• Period 1 - Dasve, Mugaon, Bhoini

• Period 2 - Dhamanhole, Gadale, Koloshi, Ugawali

• Period 3 - Sakhari, Wadavali

• Period 4 - Bhode, Mose, Saiv

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Planned economy drivers of the city

• Research centres

• Hospitality and tourism

• Education

• Resident population

• Health care

Lavasa has signed electricity supply agreements with the Maharashtra

State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL) and Tata Power

Company Ltd.

Social Initiatives

2.1 Health

• Free monthly check up camps for the villagers from surrounding areas

• Specialist doctors and medicine are made available through these camps

• Mobile Vans are used to reach remote areas

• Primary Health center has been set up at each surrounding village and is

staffed by professional doctors for round the clock medical service free of cost

• A 24 hour free ambulance service is also available to locals, in case of

patient transfers to other hospitals

• Administrative assistance to the Government public healthcare staff for

Pulse Polio campaign

• Water tanker facilities for providing healthy, clean, accessible drinking

water to villagers

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2.2 Education

• Schools have been handed over to each local Zilla Parishad

• Instituted a teachers’ development program with the Government of

Maharashtra for staffing the Schools

• Uniforms distributed to all students

• Conducted Personality Development Activities and Aptitude Tests for

students.

• Nisarg Shala concept has been introduced to empower the locals to

managing the natural resources at their disposal in a better way.

2.3 Employability

• Jobs have been provided through various initiatives which make the best

use of local expertise and potential.

• Weekly bazaar, where the villagers are encouraged to buy and sell

agricultural products, groceries and other household commodities

2.4 Connectivity

Lavasa only had access by road from Pune or Mumbai. Being in a hilly terrain

the roads though well developed have steep inclines in some places. Also as

per data publicly available no air connectivity is planned in the near feature

apart from helicopters.

Under Construction: Lavasa will be under construction for close to 10–11

years after the launch of Dasve in 2010. It remains to be seen whether the

construction activity disturbs the life in Dasve.

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State Policy:

The government has not required the promoters of Lavasa to reserve

accommodation for economic weaker sections of society. Some of the land

used in the project was acquired for the Varasgaon dam in 1974 and was

unused. Although the land cannot be returned to the original owners as per a

High Court verdict the same should used for public purposes. However it is

not clear from the verdict if it can be used for public purposes only by the

government or a private party as is the case in Lavasa.

Environmental Impact:

Lavasa has been granted clearance by the state government as per a 1994

directive from the central government directing state government to grant

environmental clearances for projects less than 1000 m above sea level. Some

activists contend that Lavasa is more 1000m above sea level in some places.

Only the entry gate of the city is above 1000m.[11]

Lavasa is situated in the western ghats and some activists contend that it will

have a adverse impact on the biodiversity.[citation needed]

Water resources:

The Varasgaon Dam is an important dam for water supply to Pune city. The

reservoir very nearly dries up in the hot summer months leading up to the

monsoon. There are claims that water from Varasgaon is diverted to Lavasa

and will result in problems in water supply to Pune city.

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However HCC, in order to address that problem has built a mini dam that has

created a reservoir holding of 1.8 million cubic metres of water. Pune's

population requires about 11.5 thousand million cubic ft (TMC) water

[clarification needed]/pa and the capacity of the Varasgaon Dam Reservoir is

also about 11.5 TMC [1]. Lavasa Corporation acquired permissions to get 1.5

TMC water (14%) from Varasgaon dam.

However, through several dams and check dams, 0.9 TMC would be added to

the Varasgaon reservoir. Lavasa will consume approximately 0.5 TMC of

water. Therefore, a surplus of 0.4 TMC water would be added to the

Varasgaon reservoir

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) at Lavasa:

Lavasa is a hill town project being developed by HCC Real Estate Ltd, a 100

per cent subsidiary of HCC. Lavasa is easily accessible from Pune (approx

65kms) and is the first planned hill town, post independence.

Use of technology to establish new levels of world-class service and efficiency

is intrinsic to the Lavasa vision. One such technology being used in the project

is GIS. The system provides integrated, single window e-governance services

to the citizens of Lavasa.

The GIS forms the core engine of Lavasa city’s IT application portfolio. Lavasa

will be the first city in Asia to operate in e-governance mode. GIS technology

will be the backbone of the e-governance mode of the town. The entire

landscape has been GIS / GPS mapped which will be linked to the document

management system to offer high quality services such as logging complaints

for any civic services, checking property related documentations and

information on the events planned in the city besides the emergency alerts

and disaster management system.

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It currently provides geographically referenced data on the entire project,

including

Land use and town planning data

Land acquisition status

Physical progress of developmental activities (including all utilities)

through color coded representation of completed, in process and

planned works

Environment and tourism related data

Slope stability data

Major issues surrounding Lavasa Project

7.1 Current issue surrounding Lavasa

The Lavasa project is promoted mainly by the HCC group. Its other promoters

include the Avantha Group, Venkateshwara Hatcheries and a Pune-based

builder. The Lavasa project about 30 km from Pune has run into a new

roadblock. After allegations that the company violated the law to acquire large

parts of its 25,000 acre complex, it’s the environmental permissions that are

now being challenged.

Launched in 2002, the Lavasa project is promoted by its builders as “India’s

first hill city.” Everything about it is first class – luxury apartments and hotels,

world-class facilities for adventure sports.

The Environment Ministry has now issued a show cause notice -

Lavasa’s builders have to explain the violations of the Environment Act.

The buildings run the risk of demolition if the explanation is not

acceptable. For now, all construction at the project has to stop.

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Earlier this year, an inquiry by the state government suggested the

Lavasa deal has deprived Maharashtra of several crores.

An inquiry conducted by the Maharashtra revenue department says that

Lavasa bought 600 hectares of land from farmers who had been given

land by the state. Lavasa should have paid 75 per cent of the price of the

land to the state, therefore. Instead, it paid 2 per cent to the

government.

The government report also says Lavasa bought 98 hectares of tribal

land without the prerequisite clearance from the government - a charge

Lavasa denied completely.

The report also finds fault with the state’s irrigation department -

MKVDC – for leasing 141 hectares of land at throwaway rates to Lavasa.

The government at no point sanctioned this lease. While the market

price should have been 20 crores a year, the lease was signed for 3 lakh

a year. Lavasa argues that the lease- signed in 2002 – settled the price

based on the market rates at that time.

7.2 Water Resource

Another most important issue surrounding Lavasa is related with the water

resource. The Varasgaon dam is an important dam for water supply to Pune

city. The reservoir nearly dries up in the hot summer months leading up to the

monsoon. There are claims that water from Varasgaon is diverted to Lavasa

and will result in problems in water supply to Pune city.

However HCC, in order to address that problem has built a mini dam that has

created a reservoir holding of 1.8 million cubic metres of water. Pune’s

population requires about 11.5 thousand million cubic water and the capacity

of the Varasgaon Dam Reservoir is about 11.5 TMC and Lavasa Corporation

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acquired permissions to get 1.5 TMC water which is 14% from Varasgaon

Dam.

7.3 Other important issues are as follows:

Land being acquired by hook or crook.

Inadequate compensation.

State machinery used to coerce farmers

No proper plans to rehabilitate the farmers affected

Most construction without necessary central govt. environment

sanctions

State environment sanctions rigged / bought.

Fundamental issue of whether the state should have in the first place

given out prime & fertile agricultural land to a private corporation

Protesters say that Lavasa is being projected as a city for all, when in

reality it’s only a luxury destination for the ultra rich.

Lavasa has been granted permissions in quick time by bending /

breaking the law.

Land leased for 30 yrs by govt. which in fact will never be returned

and is as good as sold

Land leased at throw away prices

Mega corruption for Lavasa approvals & sanctions

All new cities developed in the past were developed by the

government, Lavasa is a private enterprise. Many find this improper.

Lavasa is essentially a city for the rich. The other segments of society

will exist in Lavasa only to serve the rich.

Shortsighted. With dam capacities dropping rapidly due to silting, the

water storage will keep dropping while Lavasa consumption will

keep rising

Lavasa constructions along the backwaters are bad for environment

& will also stop actions like raising the dam height in the future

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Concerns

Many of our top banks are heavily invested in Lavasa. So, if Lavasa goes

down it will take with it a lot of public money via the banks. The mighty

politicos might have already got the gains they desired.

A section of the protest seems to have no interest in resolving the

matter. They just want to finish off Lavasa & proclaim victory.

There has always been a criticism of agitations led by Medha Patkar that

the focus is on blocking rather than solving.

India has a very bad record at bringing the corrupt to book. In all

probability the corrupt big fish will again escape. A few small players

might get prosecuted.

The fact is that most small farmers are barely able to make ends meet

and so the status quo is really not that great an option. So like Singur

which continues to exist in all its poverty after the Tatas left, so would

the farmers in the Mose basin. Can Lavasa be their road to prosperity

and out of abject poverty?

A valid point made by one shahir was that – “Lavasa says they will give

us jobs but what they want in reality is for us to be dogs at their door,

their watchmen, drivers, sweepers… We are not educated, we won’t get

any dignified jobs at Lavasa, and we prefer farming.”

Most farmers have no money management or other skills & will end up

blowing the sum they get after sale and end up doing menial jobs in

Lavasa or in Pune city.

There’s great anger in the people affected. If this is not channelized

through proper democratic systems and if some Sena like entity fuels

the fire, there will be violence.

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SOLUTION

The first step has to be to investigate the corruption that seems to be a part &

parcel of Lavasa. If the corruption is exposed, finding the irregularities should

be easy.

If the land was procured by proper means, the compensation & rehabilitation

was just, the location & usage was eco-friendly & if the corruption was

cleansed Lavasa doesn’t look like a bad idea.

Laws & Equity have to apply just the same to all. So while you want justice for

the landless labourers & small farmers there also has to be justice for the big

players who have invested crores into Lavasa. The argument that they are

powerful and can take care of themselves is not acceptable in our democracy.

The corrupt must absolutely be punished but those who have invested crores

in good faith also need to be looked as an affected party.

CURRENT STATUS

Developments at Lavasa are well on schedule, and with every day that passes,

new benchmarks are being created and surpassed.

The Dasve town center is currently under an advanced stage development.

Lavasa has already sold a number of residences, is equipped with 1000 hotel

rooms, and has a capacity for 10000 students.

While the Dasve Town Centre is already functional, all structures in education,

hospitality and leisure are fast-nearing completion.

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Bombay High Court has asked the Environment Ministry to consider

allowing Hindustan Construction's Lavasa unit to resume construction

activity partially. The court will now hear Lavasa case on December 21.

The Ministry has asked Lavasa to prove it had not violated any green laws in building a town outside the western city of Pune.

Earlier on December 7, Bombay High Court has stayed Environment

Ministry’s show cause notice order on Lavasa Crop in connection to the legal

dispute for its Pune project. Lavasa's main grouse is that it received a show

cause notice without being heard.

References

www.lavasa.com

www.lavasahillcity.com

www.moneycontrol.com

www.archinomy.com