THE PUNE Municipal Corporation (PMC) and Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL) were at loggerheads on Friday after the power utility discontinued supply to the office of the private company that built the infrastructure for the jumbo Covid hospital at College of Engineering Pune(file)
The Pimpri-Chinchwad Smart City Limited, which began work on various projects worth a staggering Rs 1,115 crore around one and a half years ago, has been able to complete only 20 per cent of the overall work so far. The deadline for the projects is June, 2021. Reasons cited for the delay range from lack of funds to the model code of conduct in effect owing to the elections.
Civic officials said some of the projects are being implemented by the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) out of its own funds while some are at various stages, like tendering and DPR (detailed project report) stages. “Some projects are struggling to take off due to paucity of funds,” said officials associated with smart city projects.
The officials further said around 40 smart city projects are being implemented through Area Base Development and Pan City Solutions, for which a ‘systems integrator’ has been picked. Among the projects being implemented through Pan City include setting up a network of fibre optic cable, smart water supply facility, smart streetlights, environment facility, smart sewage treatment facilities, smart public transport system, effective use of social media, smart city mobile app, CCTVs, smart parking facility and 300 WiFi spots.
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About the funding pattern, the officials said: “The central government and state governments have so far provided Rs 500 crore. For the Rs 1,115 crore project, the central share is 50 per cent while the state government and PCMC will contribute 25 per cent of the funds each,” said Neelkanth Poman, joint CEO of Pimpri-Chinchwad Smart City Projects Limited.
Poman said the works were primarily delayed because of the Lok Sabha and assembly elections during which the code of conduct was in force.
“We will complete 70 per cent of the project works by June 30. Thirty per cent of the project works will be completed in subsequent months,” PCMC commissioner Shravan Hardikar, who is also the CEO of Pimpri-Chinchwad Smart City Projects Ltd, said.
Hardikar said just last week, they launched work on projects worth Rs 100 crore. “So far, Rs 1,000 crore work has been launched. Another Rs 100 crore-work will be launched soon,” he said.
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The Pimpri-Chinchwad Smart City Limited has formed a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for execution of the Smart City Project. The central government included Pimpri-Chinchwad in the Smart City Project in the third list of smart cities.
*The optical cable fire project: It is worth Rs 194 crore. “Around 750 km network of optical fibre will be set up in the industrial city. There will be smart kiosks at 50 spots besides WiFi facilities at 270 spots,” said officials, adding, “As many as 3,300 CCTVs will be set up in the city.”
*Solar projects: Worth Rs 15 crore, it will be set up at YCMH Hospital.
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*Public bicycle facility: As part of the first phase, a public bicycle facility is being set on the Pimple Saudagar-Wakad BRTS corridor. As many as 500 bicycles will be made available at 34 stations through a private contractor.
*E -classroom projects: PCMC runs 105 primary schools and 18 secondary schools. “Through use of advanced technology, e -classroom projects will be implemented in these schools. Around Rs 27 lakh will be spent for each school,” officials said.
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Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More
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