Keeping the monsoon trouble in picture, the Nashik District Industries and Exporters’ Association (NDIEA) has urged the State Government to make it obligatory for the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) to fix and maintain roads and streetlights in the industrial areas and not spend the accumulated money for self-government bodies.
The city is blocked with deep rooted potholes and lack of streetlight in the areas, due to which many mishaps are taking place. These congested roads lead to severe traffic woes. Mr. Prithviraj Chavan, the chief minister has been requested to frame new policies wherein the maintenance plans is taken by MIDC itself. These works must be taken care at the earnest.
Mr. Ramesh Pawar, President of NDIEA said, “The industrial estates in the state are developed by the MIDC. The roads are handed over to local self-government bodies once the industrial estates are developed. The local self-government bodies carry out road repairs and maintenance of streetlights in the industrial estates and also collect the local body tax and property tax from the industries in industrial estates. Except for the road repairs and streetlight maintenance, the MIDC has all control of its industrial estates – it supplies water to industries, approves building plans on MIDC plots and issues Building Completion Certificates (BCC) to the industries. Since road repair and streetlight maintenance services are not being provided properly by the local self-government bodies, we have sent a letter to the chief minister, asking him to adopt a new policy of making it mandatory for the MIDC to provide road repairs and streetlights maintenance services in industrial estates.”
He further added, “There are two industrial estates of MIDC in the jurisdiction of the NMC – Satpur and Ambad. There are around 3,000 micro, small, medium and large industrial units in these two industrial estates. The Satpur industrial estate was handed over to NMC in 1982 when NMC came in existence, while the Ambad industrial estate was handed over to the civic body in 1986-87. Since then, the NMC has been looking after road repairs and streetlight maintenance works in industrial estates. The NMC is gets 60% of the total revenue from the industries in the form of octroi, which has been replaced by LBT from May 22, in the jurisdiction of the municipal corporation. But the NMC is not taking proper care of the roads and streetlights in the MIDC areas. The condition of roads in Ambad industrial estate has deteriorated.”
Keeping the above in consideration one of the officials of NMC announced that the tender process has been completed already and the private contractors are allotted the repair and maintenance works. The end of monsoon is awaited and thereafter the project will come into being. Also there are a few road to be resurfaced and hence will be taken care of in due time.
