Year after Ajit Pawar inaugurates Rs 7-cr PCMC project, cost jumps to Rs 20 cr

PCMC chief says will ensure transparency in expenditure

Ajit Pawar at the inauguration of a chowk beautification project at Pimple Nilakh on Sunday. (Source: Express Archives)

Even as Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar performed “bhoomipujans” of eight PCMC projects on Sunday, a project that he inaugurated a year ago has run into a controversy. The cost of the project — a mural of Sant Dnyaneshwar and Sant Namdev at Wadmukhwadi — has jumped three times, with the ruling NCP, using its majority, managing to get the hike approved at the recent general body meeting of the corporation.

On May 25, 2013, when Pawar performed the “bhoomipujan” of the project, its cost was estimated at Rs 6.16 crore, which had been revised to Rs 7 crore a few days later. Last month, the PCMC general body approved a proposal that pegged the project cost at Rs 20 crore.

PCMC City Engineer Mahavir Kamble Sunday denied that his office put forth the proposal of constructing the mural at Rs 20 crore. “The tender process of constructing the mural at Rs 7 crore has already started. I don’t think we will need Rs 20 crore. At best, we will need Rs 1.5 crore more for various civil works like garden,” he said.

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Stating that it was true that the proposal of Rs 20 crore was approved in the meeting, he said his office would ensure the entire amount was not spent.

He, as also other officials, had however no answer as to what was the purpose behind approving the hike. While Kamble said Municipal Secretary Ulhas Jagtap’s office would know about it, the latter said his office had prepared the agenda for the meeting and that information about the proposal came from an NCP corporator. “Our role is like that of a postman,” said Jagtap.

When her reaction was sought, NCP corporator Vinaya Tapkari said: “It is true that I moved the proposal to get Rs 20 crore approved for the project. I had done this after some PCMC officers told me that we need to get an increased amount approved in case additional expenditure is needed. Besides the Rs 7 crore, more money would be required to construct other amenities around the mural,” she said.

Municipal Commissioner Rajiv Jadhav, who was with Ajit Pawar, said: “We will ensure that there is transparency in the entire project… I don’t think we will need such a huge amount. I will take full information on the issue and will speak to you on Monday.”

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Maruti Bhapkar of Aam Aadmi Party said: “It is impossible to believe that a project cost could escalate to such an extent in barely one year. I hope the PCMC administration is not behind this move. The civic chief should make it public as to how much amount will actually be spent on the mural.”

Civic officials said PCMC never had a mural that cost even Rs 7 crore. The Bhakti-Shakti mural was constructed 20 years ago at Nigdi at a cost of around Rs 2 crore.

The project involves setting up of bronze statues of Sant Dnyaneshwar and Sant Namdev depicting their meeting. The weight of Sant Dnyaneshwar statue would be around 3,000 kg while Sant Namdev statue would weigh round 3,600 kg. There would also be statues of Sant Nivrutti, Sant Sopandev and Sant Muktabai. The total weight of the mural will be around 48,000 kg. It would come up in front of the Sai temple at Wadmukhwadi, Charholi, on a 2-acre land, civic officials said.

Manoj Dattatrye More

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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