India, June 30 -- A sustained citizens' campaign backed by activists and political leaders has helped save a two-acre prime government plot in Mangalwar Peth from being handed over to a private builder. The state government has now announced that a cancer hospital for western Maharashtra will be set up on the land, located opposite Sassoon General Hospital.

The plot, owned by the state government, was originally handed over to the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) in 1995-96 by the then minister Nitin Gadkari, as MSRDC lacked an office in Pune. However, the land remained unused for decades.

In January 2024, a Delhi-based builder put up a board on the plot, revealing that MSRDC has floated a tender and transferred th...