Pune, the smart city of Maharashtra, is already a developed place, but that doesn’t mean that it carries no scope of bringing new initiatives and new projects. The Additional Municipal Commissioner of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), IAS Ms. Rubal Agarwal is continuously coming up with new and innovative ideas to bring ease and color into people’s lives.
In an exclusive conversation with Indian Masterminds, she talks about the new and ongoing developments in Pune.
TRAFFIC GARDEN FOR CHILDREN
With the help of the Bernard Van Lee Foundation (BVLF), Ms. Agarwal has come up with innovative ideas under the ‘Urban95’ initiative, through which she and her team are planning to transform their assets, public places, amenities, gardens, etc. and make them more children and physically-challenged friendly.
For instance, she has come up with ‘traffic gardens for children’, in which she is trying to display every traffic rule in a simple and colorful manner, to enable children to understand these easily.
“Not just children, even the elders are not aware of several traffic signages. This garden will be useful for them too. Pune is famous for gardens, with around 205 public gardens, and we are providing a particular theme to every garden. The BVLF have contributed their technical support and PMC has provided financial support and the availability of land.”
The “traffic’’ park is ready but hasn’t been made open to the public yet because of Covid-19 guidelines. Citizens of Pune are looking forward to visiting the park as soon as it opens!
DARSHAN COMPLEX IN SHIRDI
Earlier, Ms. Agarwal held the post of CEO – Shirdi trust during its centenary celebration during which she constructed a darshan complex for the visitors of the temple.
She recalled that “Lakhs of visitors come to Shirdi every year and it becomes very tough to maintain their queues. We used to put temporary shades and tent houses which can be fatal in case of disasters such as fire or thunderstorms. There were no proper facilities for the visitors so, we came up with darshan queues.”
Under it, they constructed a big complex similar in infrastructure to the mandir complex which housed everything from shoe-keeping facility to Prasad distribution kiosk, waiting rooms, childcare rooms, feeding rooms, first-aid center, etc.
COLLEGE FOR SHIRDI
Surprisingly, Shirdi does not have a single college for the last seven decades! It was no small feat, therefore, during her tenure in Shirdi, Ms. Agarwal inaugurated a college there.
“We transformed a ‘Bhakt Niwas’ into a college and it started in the same year (2018-2019). I went for the tender and gave orders for its construction. Now I am posted elsewhere, but last month when I visited Shirdi, I was happy to see the progress and note that the work is about to finish. People there remembered me and that was quite a satisfying experience,” she told Indian Masterminds.
`BETI-BACHAO, BETI-PADHAO’
During her tenure as the collector of Jalgaon, Maharashtra, the worst affected district of India when it comes to child-sex ratio, the 2008 batch officer worked extensively for the ‘Beti-Bachao; Beti Padhao’ (save daughter, educate daughter) scheme of the Central Government.
Ms. Agarwal changed several rules and involved numerous stakeholders to safeguard the girls in the district. Due to her diligent effort, the sex ratio in Jalgaon improved considerably and it even received the first prize from Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi!
`MULA-MUTHA’ REJUVENATION
Taking clearance from state environment committees, Ms. Agarwal is heading the Mula-Mutha river rejuvenation project. It’s a ₹990-crore project sanctioned by the Central Government wherein the civic body will construct 11 new STPs across the city to reduce the pollution of the Mula-Mutha River.
The project will create an additional sewage treatment capacity of 396 million liters per day (MLD) over the existing 477 MLD and entails laying of 113.6 km of sewer lines and renovation/rehabilitation of four existing intermediate pumping stations.
MEDICAL COLLEGE FOR PUNE
Another dream project of hers is to construct a medical college in Pune, and this one is on the verge of completion.
“Only BMC have their medical colleges in Pune, whereas PMC only focuses on the primary health sector and does not have any medical college. We have understood the importance of medical college because of the Covid19 pandemic and therefore I wanted to get this done. We have sent the proposal to MCI and will soon get permission. Admissions will be open by next year” Ms. Agarwal told Indian Masterminds.
Ms. Rubal Agarwal is continuously working hard to bring prosperity into the lives of her people by looking after everyone, from children to youngsters and also the elders.
