Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) Devendra Fadnavis may have put his inglorious past behind him to come back to power – this time as deputy chief minister of Maharashtra. In a way, life has come full circle for Fadnavis after Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray resigned and the new government under Eknath Shinde was sworn in last week.
Back in 2014, his emergence as the chief minister of Maharashtra shifted the state’s power centre from western Maharashtra where Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) enjoys its clouts, to Nagpur, the headquarter of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and home town of BJP heavyweights.
In 2019, political equations changed and the power centre was divided between Mumbai and Pune with Thackeray being the chief minister and Ajit Pawar his deputy.
More than 31 months later, the same script played out in Maharashtra last week, but with a role reversal of the victor and vanquished. Shinde and Fadnavis now need to look beyond Mumbai and push for developmental work in other parts. For Pune, its infrastructure story - two steps forward, four steps backwards – now needs to change.
During the past two and half years, Pune did not benefit much as the key infrastructure projects moved at a snail’s pace or some of them even got cancelled. This column has previously too argued about how major infrastructure projects in Pune district are not moving ahead.
{{/usCountry}}During the past two and half years, Pune did not benefit much as the key infrastructure projects moved at a snail’s pace or some of them even got cancelled. This column has previously too argued about how major infrastructure projects in Pune district are not moving ahead.
{{/usCountry}}Among them were Metro rail, Hyperloop, Purandar airport, outer ring road proposed by Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA), and inner ring road touted as High Capacity Mass Transit Route (HCMTR), river rejuvenation and riverfront development. Except for Metro rail, which began operations on a priority stretch from March 6 this year, none of the other projects has moved ahead.
On air connectivity, Pune has already suffered from the setback as the state government reconsidered its decision and explored a new site for the proposed airport at Purandar while the Centre (Ministry of Defence) revoked permission for that site. No one knows where the project currently stands as Ajit Pawar too has preferred not to speak much on it.
The HCMTR was among the oldest projects that PMC was considering and it got a push during the Fadnavis era. Pawar, after regaining his power position in state politics, suggested some changes and PMC too accepted them. However, despite PMC keeping the budgetary provision for the project, during the previous financial year, not much happened and the fund was eventually diverted for some other smaller work. On the hyperloop, the state government is unsure as the project has not proven itself yet and Pawar highlighted a lack of clarity on the technology. The project is yet to be tried and tested anywhere in the world and there is no data available on the progress of the project elsewhere.
Similarly, the PMRDA proposed ring road also appears to be in cold storage as the state government has prioritised Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) to propose another ring road, which passes through outer parts of the city. This may sound prudent considering that two ring roads – both passing from outside the city – may turn commercially inviable given their utility and it can lead to confrontation between farmers and the government over land acquisition issues. The MSRDC project is a step ahead of PMRDA with the government issuing notification for land acquisition.
On the two river-related projects, PMC had hurriedly invited bids as the ruling BJP wanted to draw political mileage by inaugurating them during Prime Minister’s proposed visit to Pune on March 6. As expected, the riverfront development is now on hold after opposition from environmentalists.
For a city of over 50 lakh population of Pune including that of Pimpri-Chinchwad, some of these projects would have offered some respite and improved the quality of life had they reached some level. Commutating through daily traffic jams, inferior air, polluted river water and poor roads are the daily woes no less than punishment for the people of Pune. All this aggravates when projects to improve some of these situations do not move forward even after their high decibel announcements by those in power.