Lavasa (Marathi: लवासा) is a planned city billed as India's first hill

city since Independence, being developed in accordance with the

controversial Hill Station policy passed by the Maharashtra government in 2000.
The project is being developed primarily by HCC India
near Pune and Mumbai and is spread over 25,000 acres (100 km2) of
controversially procured land. In the view of court rulings, its exact legal status is
uncertain and the land itself remains disputed.

Location
Lavasa is located in the Western Ghats, on the banks of the Baji Pasalkar Reservoir behind
the Varasgaon Dam near Pune and Mumbai. The city is coming up on eight large hillocks that
surround the elongated Varasgaon Dam Reservoir. Varasgaon is one of the primary sources of water
for Pune city. The project covers approximately 25,000 acres (100 km2) of land. Lavasa is located
within 80 minutes from Pune (approximately 50 km) and 3 hours from Mumbai (approx 180 km).
There are five access routes to Lavasa, one of which is enhanced and developed.

Plans
Lavasa is planned in four phases out of which, Phase I in Dasve will be operational from 2010 with
almost 1,000 villas and 500 apartments. The development of Phase II will begin next year and would
be ready by 2014. The third and fourth phases would be ready by 2017 and 2021, respectively. There
is a controversy around how clearance has been given to build the new Lavasa city that will draw
water from the Varasgaon Dam. The Varasgaon Dam is one of the primary sources of water for Pune
city, and Pune city already faces acute water shortage in the months preceding the annual monsoon
season. Another controversy is around how forest lands can be given away for commercial purposes.

Development
Development plans of Lavasa consists of four periods and involves the development of 12 towns
spread across 7 hill slopes

 Period 1 - Dasve, Mugaon, Bhoini

 Period 2 - Dhamanhole, Gadale, Koloshi, Ugawali
 Period 3 - Sakhari, Wadavali
 Period 4 - Bhode, Mose, Saiv

Planned economy drivers of the city

 Research centres
 Hospitality and tourism
 Education
 Resident population
  Health care

The city has tied up with various names in the respective sectors to develop the required hard and
soft infrastructure These include

 Apollo Hospitals: Hospital and wellness centre

 Accor Developers: Hotels and convention centres
 Christ University: Education
 Symbiosis: Education
 Mercure Hotels: Hotels
 ITC Limited: Fortune Hotels
 Novotel: Hotels
 Starwood: Hotels
 Institute of International Business Relations, Germany: Education
 National School of Hotel Management, Kolkata: Education
 Educomp - Millenium school - Education
 École hôtelière de Lausanne, Lausanne:Education
 Space Investment Co. LLC - Spaceworld theme park over 65 acres (260,000 m2)
 Faldo design - Nick Faldo golf academy and 18 hole championship Lavasa golf
course spread over 150 acres (610,000 m2)
 Manchester City - Football academy
 Hockey Australia - Hockey academy
 Sir Steve Redgrave - Rowing academy
 MGM Studios - MoU for Hollywood theme park

History
The Lavasa project is being constructed by Ajit Gulabchand's Hindustan Construction Company with
Hincon Techno Consultants as the primary engineering consultant. The master plan was developed
by HOK, USA. The project feasibility and research was done by Accenture & ACNielsen, Urban
planning by Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum andbranding by Landor, (Hong Kong).

Lavasa Corporation was originally registered as Pearly Blue Lake Resorts Pvt Ltd on February 11,
2000, with Aniruddha Deshpande, Vitthal Maniyar, and Aniruddha Seolekar as its first directors. The
firm changed its name to The Lake City Corporation Pvt Ltd on December 12, 2000, and around 2004
to Lavasa Corporation.

On October 3, 2002, Supriya Sule daughter of Sharad Pawar was allotted 12.48 lakh equity shares
and 26.64 lakh 6% redeemable preference shares by The Lake City Corporation Pvt Ltd. The other
shareholders included Aniruddha Deshpande, Vinay Vitthal Maniyar, Jyoti Bhale, Arvind Bhale,
Hindustan Finvest Ltd, Srivenk Investments Ltd, Venkateshwara Hatcheries Ltd and Janpath
Investment and Holdings Ltd.

The shareholding pattern changed in 2004 and as of October 6, 2004, Sadanand and Supriya Sule
jointly held 7.49 lakh equity shares and 29.97 lakh 6% redeemable preference shares of the Lavasa
Corporation with a face value of Rs10. The Sules and other investors have since sold their stake and
the shareholding pattern as of Aug 2010 is

 HCC through its subsidiary HREL - 64.99%

 Avantha Group - 16.25%
 Other Investors - 5.95%

The HCC board approved the Lavasa Corp IPO in Jul 2010. The Draft Red Herring Prospectus for the
Lavasa Corp IPO was filed on 13-Sep-2010 with SEBI (Securities Exchange Board of India) seeking
to raise Rs. 20000 million through a initial public offer (IPO).

Awards and recognition

Lavasa has received international appreciation from the
Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU)

 Award of Excellence [2005]

American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA)

 Merit Award for Lavasa Landscape Guidelines [2010]

 Honour Award for Mugaon Valley Master Plan [2009]
 Award of Excellence for Dasve Village Master Plan [2005]
 Award of Excellence for Dasve Village Master Plan [2005]

Indian Green Building Council (IGBC)

 Hotel Fortune Dasve for achieving green building standards

Environment
Monitoring Air Pollution

A mobile air quality monitoring van will act as a measurement tool to monitor the quality of air in
different areas of the city. The vehicle is equipped to measure the quality of air on the various
parameters like presence of any oxidant of Sulphur or Nitrogen, suspended or respirable suspended
particulate matter in the air, as specified by Pollution Control board.

Drinking Water Supply

Lavasa Corporation Limited inaugurated the facility to supply drinking water through pipelines to
Gaonthans at Dasve village in Lavasa. Prior to this, the villages were supplied water through tankers.

Social initiatives
Lavasa Corporation Limited has initiated a number of development and empowerment programs for
the local community at Lavasa. Key initiatives include:

Christel House International founded in 1998 by businesswoman turned social entrepreneur Christel
DeHaan provides education to economically disadvantaged children. It currently runs Learning
Centers in Mexico, Venezuela, South Africa, Indianapolis and India. Christel House Lavasa provides a
learning e education meals and regular health care.

Creche is a day care centre for the children of labour at site run by Lavasa Corporation Limited. The
centre is managed by Tara Mobile Creches (Pune) that has been setting up day care centres for
children of unprivileged working mothers at construction sites for last 40 years.

Career Launcher, New Delhi’, a professional training institute, provides vocational training for students
between the age of 18-30 years from 18 villages around Lavasa city.

Lavasa Corporation Limited in association with SAMPARC, a Non Government Organization that
works with children from poor, needy and under privileged communities, will set up an orphanage at
Lavasa in two years. The orphanage will focus on rehabilitation, imparting education and vocational
training.

Lavasa Community Development Department in association with Saane Guruji Kathamala (Pune)
organized a series of personality development programs for children across age groups in October
2010. Over 160 students of Zillah Parishad Primary Schools of Dasve, Bhoini, Mugaon, Dhaman Ohol
and 135 children of Bhoini Crèches were part of the programme, that aimed at thought channelization,
sentence construction, stage presence and public speaking.

Women's rally

 Annual event to espouse social awareness about women's issue organised on women's day
 Raise awareness and aid for women’s cancer.
 The funds raised are donated towards the Women’s Cancer Initiative of Tata Memorial
Hospital, a non-governmental, non-profit organization aimed at creating awareness about cancer
that affects women and other such issues

Lacunae
Connectivity
Lavasa only had access by road from Pune or Mumbai. Being in a hilly terrain the roads though well
developed have steep inclines in some places. Also as per data publicly available no air connectivity
is planned in the near feature apart from helicopters.

Under Construction

Lavasa will be under construction for close to 10–11 years after the launch of Dasve in 2010. It
remains to be seen whether the construction activity disturbs the life in Dasve.

Controversies
State Policy
The government has not required the promoters of Lavasa to reserve accommodation for economic
weaker sections of society. Some of the land used in the project was acquired for the Varasgaon dam
in 1974 and was unused. Although the land cannot be returned to the original owners as per an High
Court verdict the same should used for public purposes. However it is not clear from the verdict if it
can be used for public purposes only by the government or a private party as is the case in Lavasa.

Potential Conflict of Interest

The shareholding in Lavasa Corporation (aka. Lake City Corporation) in the period 2002 - 2004
included daughter and son-in-law of Sharad Pawar. Shareholders also included known close
associates of the Sharad Pawar such as Aniruddha Deshpande and Vitthal Maniyar. Lavasa
corporation got most of clearances from the state government during this period. However this is a
matter of conjecture and speculation as there are no proofs.

Lavasa has also signed lease agreements and agreements to store water and build dams with the
MKVDC (Maharashtra Krishna Valley Development Corporation). Ajit Pawar (nephew of Sharad
Pawar) was the chairman of MKVDC at the time of granting permissions and signing of agreements.
Mr. Ajit Pawar has however denied any knowledge of shareholding patterns at the time of signing the
MoU.

Environmental Impact
Lavasa has been granted clearance by the state government as per a 1994 directive from the central
government directing state government to grant environmental clearances for projects less than 1000
m above sea level. Some activists contend that Lavasa is more 1000m above sea level in some
places. Only the entry gate of the city is above 1000m.

Lavasa is situated in the western ghats and some activists contend that it will have a adverse impact
on the biodiversity.

Water resources
The Varasgaon Dam is a important dam for water supply to Pune city. The reservoir very nearly dries
up in the hot summer months leading up to the monsoon. There are claims that water from Varasgaon
is diverted to Lavasa and will result in problems in water supply to Pune city.
However HCC, in order to address that problem has built a mini dam that has created a reservoir
holding of 1.8 million cubic metres of water. Pune's population requires about 11.5 thousand million
cubic ft (TMC) water per annum and the capacity of the Varasgaon Dam Reservoir is also about 11.5
TMC. Lavasa Corporation acquired permissions to get 1.5 TMC water (14%) from Varasgaon dam.