Lavasa Lake City India’s First Planned Hill City In Pune Maharashtra
Lavasa Lake City India’s First Planned Hill City: Lavasa was India’s first planned hill city billions were invested to build Lavasa and thousands invested their money here but Lavasa, which was designed for 2 lakh people not even 20 thousand people stayed there politics, not following the rules, and outcome of evil deeds is always wrong can be explained by Lavasa and today we’re gonna see, what Lavasa was and what happened to it.
- The distance From Kharagpur to Lavasa Is Approx. 1780 Km Via NH53
- Google Map: Lavasa
Ajit Gulabchand, MD of HCC or Hindustan Construction Company visited Portofino, Italy he loved that city so much that he set up a dream project in his mind that he’ll make a similar city in India as well and bring these world-class standards to India after few years of planning between years 2000 and 2003 Ajit Gulab Chand and HCC near Pune in Maharastra.
In between Sahyadri Mountains finalized a piece of land located in Mulsi taluka, this spot was finalized for Lavasa and the construction started Lavasa’s initial plan, which had 5 sub towns and every town was in a valley, around a water body you could say every town had its own lake access every town had its own specialty some were residential some for amusement some for film production, some for I.T.
Every town was designed differently these towns had many beautiful homes and villas, tourist attractions were being made and people were investing their life savings in these expensive homes or taking out loans with interest to buy property here people were promised, international institutions here like oxford university and lots of sports infra as well and manchester club would invest here, was promised along with this, other MNC’sIT companies and luxurious hotels will be made here were being promised to people because of this, in a short span of time, Lavasa became the most happening project in India and accordingly, people kept investing and all of this was constructed over 25,000 acres of land which was huge for a single project.
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At that time initially, the construction was fast by 2007-08 some parts of this city were ready and people actually got to see how Lavasa was going to be but things took a turn in 2010. Western ghats or Sahyadri mountains are UNESCO-protected natural zones because of which too many permissions are needed to do any construction over here. In any project, the list of permissions is long but if you are specifically making a project in such a place then the list is even longer.
Lavasa didn’t find it necessary to get all permissions after too many complaints are sent to the ministry of environment and finally after too many complaints environmental ministry started to take action. Lavasa did take permission from the State government, but not from the central government finally the ministry sent a notice in 2011 and ordered all construction to stop in Lavasa. Lavasa and Maharastra government said that because Lavasa is not above 100m from sea level so it should not be under hill development rules and thus no permission from the center was needed.
Therefore, the permission of the center was not necessary, but in fact, Lavasa City was above 100 meters at the same time, according to the environment ministry, if any project has a value of more than 50 crores, and more than 1000 people have direct development here. Is supposed to take permission at that time. And this work was not done and due to the friction going on in the middle of this state & center, Lavasa’s work stopped for many years, but before making such a big project, many people are involved in it And without them, no private LTD could take such a big decision and after stopping work, things started coming out one by one about what things were happening behind Lavasa’s back by Lavasa Maharashtra government Special Planning Authority status was given to the government bodies only and till date and because private LTD was given this designation, many people got their ears up.
Yogesh Pratap Singh, who was an IPS officer at that time and a lawyer nowadays, accused Lavasa that a lot of lands that were necessary for Lavasa has been leased to Lavasa Corporation at very affordable prices. He has got a corporation from the Government of Maharashtra, but according to some articles, it has been said that the entire trader’s land has been given to him at a price of ₹ 70000 every year.
Gradually some attractions started to close the hotels started closing due to fewer tourists coming on the other and the activities that happen in Lavasa are getting reduced year after year. Money has reduced so much that if you want to visit Lavasa today, then you have to buy an entry pass of ₹ 500 and if you want to do a pre-wedding shoot, then you have to pay.