Pune: The Khadki Cantonment Board (KCB) has decided to demolish an elevated water storage reservoir in the Khadki bazaar area, as many as 12 years after a structural audit of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) declared it unsafe for use.Differences between the PMC and the KCB were seen as the reason behind the inaction for all these years though the reservoir is located in a densely populated area.Chief executive officer of KCB Amol Jagtap told TOI, “Our engineering department has prepared a tender proposal and it will be floated soon. The demolition is expected to cost Rs37 lakh. Once we demolish the facility, the board will get the land. It can be utilized for commercial purpose.”Around 5,000sqft of land will be available to the board once the tank is demolished. The board authorities said they would carry out the exercise carefully. “If required, we will take assistance from the military authorities to complete the demolition,” said another official of the board.In 2006, the PMC had conducted a structural audit of the facility and told the KCB to demolish it. “Since the board did not have any other facility to supply drinking water in the area, the board had to use the facility until the PMC constructed a new reservoir in 2013- 14. This was a risky affair but we had to do it as we did not have any other alternative,” a senior official told TOI.Several residents and a few social activists had approached the board in this regard but it maintained its stand that it would not incur the cost of demolition. “This was completely bizarre as they had ignored safety of the thousands of people, who are residing and running their business in the area,” the official said.Local residents were critical of the tiff between the authorities. “How can both the civic authorities ignore people’s safety for so many years? Rs40 lakh is not a big amount for both the bodies. They are supposed to provide better facilities. Had the structure collapsed, it would have harmed hundreds of lives,” said Rajesh Kunte, a resident of the Khadki Bazaar area.

Stay updated with all the Pune Latest News headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.