Pune: Deputy chief minister and Pune guardian minister Sunetra Pawar on Friday announced that a provision of Rs 1,472 crore has been made for the 2026-27 financial year under the District Planning Committee (DPC) to carry out various development works in Pune district.Sunetra chaired the first DPC meeting of this financial year for Pune district on Friday. Following the austerity appeal by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, many committee members attended the meeting online, where various issues pertaining to the district, such as planning for water supply in view of the projected below-normal monsoon due to the El Nino effect, were also discussed.Interacting with mediapersons after the meeting, Pawar said the budget has been increased by Rs 93 crore compared to last year. “The focus of the development is to upgrade basic infrastructure, health and education sector and tourism,” she said.After the successful first edition of the Pune grand tour, the international cycle expedition, the DPC has made a significant budgetary provision for next year’s edition. “DPC has made a provision of Rs 718.2 crore for next year’s Pune grand tour. Apart from that, as a part of the Kumbh Mela preparation, Rs 282 crore have been provided for the Bhimashankar development project,” Pawar added.The Pune guardian minister also said that the DPC’s focus would be to promote spiritual tourism and upgradation works of some sites would be undertaken for that. The committee has made a budgetary provision to carry out development at Sinhgad fort, besides allocating Rs 41.7 crore for the development plan at the birth place of Sant Tukaram.
