Pimpri Chinchwad is situated at the confluence of the rivers Pavana, Indrayani and Mutha. Due to the impact of the expanding city and the ever-increasing population, the natural vegetation and habitats of the river basin are in a degraded condition. The water quality has deteriorated due to the inflow of sewage and industrial effluents in the river channel.
The 14-km long stretch of Pavana river from Mamurdi to Dapodi passes through the municipal limits. Increasing urbanization has led to high level of pollution in the river. So there is a long pending demand of the people to develop the river. The civic body plans to develop the river on the lines of Sabarmati river of Ahmedabad.
The land in the Pavana river bed belongs to the state irrigation department so there is a possibility that it may object when the construction work begins. So, PCMC will make a demand to the state government to transfer the land along the river to the corporation just as the government had transferred the Pune-Mumbai highway for repair and maintenance.
The estimated cost of the Pavana river development project is likely to be around Rs 700 to 1,000 crore. Similarly the civic body will have to incur huge expenditure on the development of the remaining two rivers.
