PUNE: Maharashtra has dominated the ‘Streets4People Challenge’, a competition organised under the Smart City mission which aims at recognising innovative efforts for creating “walking-friendly streets”.
Four of the 11 frontrunner cities in the challenge are from Maharashtra with Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad, Aurangabad and Nagpur featuring on the list of the competition’s stage one results. The competition requires each of the 113 registered cities to test at least one flagship walking project and enhance liveability in one neighbourhood.
“The smart city corporation is working with local municipal corporation for building infrastructure for it,” said Sanjay Kolte, CEO of the Pune Smart City Development Corporation. V G Kulkarni, head of the Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) road department, said , “Innovative projects like creating places and traffic parks have been organised. Roads with wider footpaths and street furniture are being built.”
Shrikant Sawane, executive engineer in Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, said, “We are preparing for the second round to be held January 23, for which guidelines have been issued.” As part of the campaign, the Aurangabad Smart City Development Corporation Limited has selected stretches of Kranti Chowk and Connaught “ We are committed to transforming the streets to give Aurangabad a modern look,” said Astik Kumar Pandey, Aurangabad municipal commissioner and CEO of the Aurangabad smart city corporation.
(Inputs from Piyush Bhusari & Prasad Joshi)
