Pune
The government moved towards creating a single-point nodal authority under the Pune divisional commissioner to coordinate civic agencies and fast-track long-pending infrastructure plans. The logic was simple: an economic hub that cuts across administrative boundaries cannot be effectively managed when every agency works within its own jurisdiction. Chakan needs precisely the same approach and that too with far more urgency. Chakan is one of the country’s important manufacturing clusters, with major automobile, engineering and ancillary companies. But the infrastructure supporting this industrial powerhouse has failed to keep pace with its growth. The warning could hardly be clearer. PMRDA also has several road and bypass projects in the Chakan area, with land acquisition underway for some of them. But therein lies the irony. Chakan has projects, plus committees, and many announcements, followed by reviews. What it does not appear to have is a single authority empowered to make all these agencies work to one timetable. That is precisely where the Hinjewadi experience should inform the government’s response. The state has already recognised that coordination is critical for an IT hub. It now needs to apply the same principle to manufacturing. The solution does not necessarily require creating another elaborate bureaucracy. The chief minister could designate one senior authority with clear responsibility for the entire Chakan-Talegaon industrial belt, backed by a time-bound action plan and the power to call all concerned agencies to the table. The government has already begun responding to the latest crisis. Industries minister Uday Samant has sought a survey of factories, while a high-level committee has been proposed to address Chakan’s road and traffic problems. These are welcome steps. But the government should resist the temptation to create yet another layer of coordination. The government has been given a second warning after Hinjewadi. Chakan is where it can demonstrate that it has learnt the lesson.
There is no shortage of proposed solutions, with the state government already approving the Talegaon-Chakan-Shikrapur elevated highway, and the 53.2-km corridor is expected to provide a long-term solution to one of Maharashtra’s most congested industrial stretches. Because of the traffic and infrastructure crisis, potentially affecting about 2,000 workers, in August, industrialists said around 20 companies were considering relocation.
Last year, after mounting criticism over the condition of Hinjewadi IT Park, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis stepped in and prioritised the issue.
