By Amika

Pune: AS many as 29 bunglows constructed in Chikhli area of Pimpri-Chinchwad by violating environment laws are in trouble.

The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation has decided to demolish these structures.

The decision come in the wake of the directives of the National Green Tribunal. The NGT in its order directed the PCMC to demolish the buildings as they have been constructed with no-construction zones.

PCMC Municipal Commissioner Shekhar Singh said the NGT has asked them to hold hearings and then take action. The commissioner said they will give the residents an opportunity to have their say and then take action.

The NGT order said these structures come within 200 metres of the no-construction or blue flood line of the Indrayani river that flows through PCMC and PMRDA jurisdiction.

Tananji Gambhire, a resident of Pune city, had filed a petition in this regard with the PCMC.

The PCMC administration said it had issued notices to the residents after it came to light that they were building the structures without taking permission.

The PCMC commissioner said nearly two months back they had also demolished 13 buildings in the area.

''These particular buildings could not be demolished as the matter with pending before the National Green Tribunal,'' he said.

Environmental activist Prashant Raul said he had also drawn PCMC's attention to the violation of green laws by the structures which had come within the blue flood line marked by the irrigation department. ''Yet the PCMC did not take any action,'' he said.