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PMC promises ‘model’ hospitals, schools and roads in 2024
The PMC has one general hospital, one infectious diseases’ hospital, 18 maternity hospitals, and 42 dispensaries. The civic body will upgrade 11 out of the 18 maternity hospitals
In the New Year, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) plans to elevate 11 hospitals, 30 schools and 15 roads into ‘model’ hospitals, schools, and roads, respectively, by upgrading their facilities.
The PMC has one general hospital, one infectious diseases’ hospital, 18 maternity hospitals, and 42 dispensaries. The civic body will upgrade 11 out of the 18 maternity hospitals.
Vikas Dhakane, additional municipal commissioner of the PMC, said, “Right now, many hospitals are not fully operational. We are working on selecting 11 hospitals from different parts of the city to run at full capacity. Old elevators, oxygen pipes, machines and medical equipment in the selected hospitals will be upgraded. Our goal is to make these hospitals as good as the private ones.”
Whereas the PMC has a total 287 schools in 180 locations across the city which provide both primary and secondary education. The civic body plans to give its schools a facelift and will start with the makeover of 30 schools (from 15 ward offices) to begin with.
Dhakane said, “Many of our schools lack basic amenities like proper benches, adequate drinking water, toilets, and sufficient lighting. Due to limited funds, the decision was taken to upgrade schools in phases rather than investing a fixed amount in all the schools. We will also design the new logo of PMC schools.”
“The first phase involves upgrading 30 schools wherein the focus will be on schools with the highest number of students. The budget allocated for schools will be utilised for the initial upgrades, and civic organisations may seek support through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes,” Dhakane said.
As part of this initiative, the PMC plans to provide quality benches, clean drinking water, hygienic bathrooms, and student-friendly amenities. The selection of the 30 schools for the first phase is based on a survey conducted to identify schools that are in need of improvement.
In a similar vein, the PMC has started work on transforming 15 important roads into ‘model’ ones. The 15 roads include: Ahmednagar Road, Solapur Road, Magarpatta Road, Pashan Road, Sangamwadi Road, Pune Airport Road, Karve Road, Paud Road, Satara Road, Bibwewadi Road, North Main Road, Ganesh Khind Road, Bajirao Road, old Pune-Mumbai Highway, and Senapati Bapat Road. Recently, the PMC removed encroachments on Ahmednagar Road. As part of the plan, the PMC will fix sidewalks, remove illegal structures and signs, address potholes and drainage issues, repair streetlights, and resurface roads.
Dhakane said, “We recently started a drive to clear encroachments on 15 model roads. The PMC also removed illegal huts, vendors and stalls on the sidewalks and warned of legal action against future encroachments. We have set a target to develop 15 major roads into model roads till June.”
“We have decided to assign the responsibility of repairs and maintenance of these roads for a period of three years to the contractor. At present, we have started work on the old Pune-Mumbai Highway, Nagar Road, Satara Road, Ganesh Khind Road and Katraj-Kondhwa Road,” Dhakane said.
