pune decks have been cleared for use of 50 acres of land in kothrud for construction of a vehicle testing track and laboratories for the automotive research association of india araithe general body gb on monday approved the state urban development departments udd plan to convert the said piece of land marked as hill slope zone in the development plan to publicsemipublic zone the gb approved the proposal with opposition from citizen groups and environmentalists notwithstanding after consulting the director of town planning and making necessary enquiries the government is of the opinion that for granting permission to the arai for laboratory building and vehicle testing track it is necessary to delete the said land animatedly 20 hectares 50 acres from hill top hill slope zone and include it in public semipublic zone to allow existing built up area of 24265 sqm and proposed built up area of 35435 sqm the state udd proposal said the department of heavy industries government of india has sanctioned rs 250 crore for the project which will be a nonmanufacturing zero discharge facility according to arai the proposed expansion does not include any residential or commercial area and is solely meant for setting up advanced laboratories for the development of green and safe vehicles besides the arai claims the project will not lead to concretisation of the hill as development will happen on less than 5 land of the hill the civic administration clarified that even if the pmc does not take a decision on the matter the state government has the final authority to take a final call the proposal was approved with 50 votes against 22 votes the new facility will be set up under the national automotive testing and rd infrastructure project natrip an initiative of the union governments automotive mission plan 20062016highend computer gadgets for civic schools at a time when a majority of civic schools have no required infrastructure and sufficient teachers the pmc continues to spend mammoth amounts on schools located in wards of select corporators for instance the gb approved rs 1 crore for a civic school in kamalnayan bajaj garden after a proposal was submitted by corporator anil bhosale according to bhosale this money will be used to provide computer diaries to students shiv sena opposed the proposal saying that the pmc should first provide books and uniforms to students and then think about going hitech