Aurangabad gets ready for next-level development

Aurangabad, Jan 20:

The Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) administrator A K Pandey today underlined that the work providing basic amenities like roads, water, waste management and streetlights, are on track. Hence the city should now envisage next level development in urban mobility areas, environment sustenance and recreation.

Pandey was speaking in a meeting with the office-bearers of an NGO, Aurangabad First, today. The meeting discussed traffic management of the city. The district collector Sunil Chavan and the commissioner of police (CP) Nikhil Gupta also participated along with in the meet. The deputy chief executive officer of Aurangabad Smart City Development Corporation Ltd (ASCDCL) Pushkal Shivam, AMC city engineer S D Panzade, executive engineer Hemant Kolhe, deputy commissioner Nandkishore Bhombe, Public Works Department Engineer Dilip Ukairde, MSEB chief engineer Bhujang Khandare, MIDC Regional Officer Rajesh Joshi, World Bank NHAI engineer Narsingh Bhande, MSEDCL superintendent engineer Bibhishan Nirmal, Aurangabad First's president Pritish Chatterjee, director of Bagla Group of Industries Rishi Bagla, Rajesh Chanchlani, Vivek Bhosale, Dhiraj Deshmukh and Hemant Landge were present in the meeting.

Pandey underlined that the AMC had completed road works of valuing Rs 100 crore in the last one year and is now contributing to Rs 152 crore's road project. Nearly all main roads of the city are included under these projects, he said. ASCDCL had laid cable of more than 100 kilometres length for CCTV surveillance under Master System Integrator (MSI) Project, which also includes the recently inaugurated Command and Control Centre (CCC) in the CP office. The water project of valuing Rs 1680 crore would also be executed soon. The project will help to resolve the major water shortage in the city. The installation of LED streetlight across the city is nearly complete, and there are hardly any complaints.

The AMC and ASSCDCL are working on e-Governance, enabling the home delivery of certificates, online payments and transactions, soon. The ongoing restoration of heritage structures, including ten gates and Shahgunj clock-tower is expected to complete by April. ASCDCL's bus division is planning to introduce five e-buses to promote city tourism. They will ply on heritage routes. With district collector’s permission, AMC will also develop urban forest through a plantation of 10,000 trees at 80 different locations.

Referring to the public transport, Pandey said,"The service has been made technology-driven with facilities like smart card, vehicle tracking system (VTS), e-ticketing and mobile app. To make Aurangabad, a child and youth-friendly destination, an Avenger Garden and 24x7 entertainment zone are on the cards."

Pritish Chatterjee gave a presentation freeing left turns on Jalna Road. The district collector and the commissioner of police, and other officials committed to addressing the issues and vowed to develop Jalna Road into a model road of Aurangabad.